Nothings Bigger than love!
by MaggieFrost
Summary: The years between when Leyton left Tree Hill with their baby girl and when they returned with an extra two kids to Tree Hill. Their less than dramatic lives!
1. Chapter 1

_**Nothings bigger than love!**_

_*****__Authors Note* So I was personally outraged that the seventh, eighth and ninth seasons of one tree hill didn't feature the Leyton family which I could have loved forever and ever and this disappointment mainly lead to me not being really able to get into the seventh and eighth season and not really connect to the characters of Clay and Quinn (Other than my initial love of them when I was unaware of the Leyton factor, when I had only just started watching the show and I wasn't madly in love with the relationship that was Lucas and Peyton's and I was watching season seven clips on youtube). But I realised in one of my mind boggling moments that it was kind of a blessing that they did get to lea__ve as a family unit when they did, they both went through so much crap and they had finally reached this extatically happy zone where they were healthy with baby in tow, (And I know the show isnt real and that they arent real) It was kind of refreshing to think that their life was going to be toned down in the drama stakes. This story is going to be about The years between the time that they moved away from Tree Hill and when they returned in my stories under the title of Live on through. I have no affiliation to the show One Tree Hill this story Is purely something for my own pleasure and enjoyment and hopefully for the people that read it is the same. So please read it and review it with some feedback or ideas, Thanks!*_

The car pulled up at the getty four hours away, it had been a long trip but now they were here with their small family unit looking on at the bright sun above them and the mass of ocean in front of them. This was the most scary and amazing time in their lives, neither of them had experienced anything like it, holding their baby girl in their arms had confirmed what they already knew this was going to be an amazingly difficult journey and he couldn't imagine doing it with anyone else. They knew that in Tree Hill they would be surronded by friends and family and a constant phone tree of help a text message away but they needed a break, They loved Tree Hill it was their home all the good moments were there but so were the incredibly bad and like always it was the bad memories that you remembered the clearest and first. They wanted to raise their girl in a less dramatic setting, in a relaxed and not constantly worried about what crazy Tree Hill circus was going to rock up next fashion, this didn't mean they didn't love Tree Hill or the people that they had met and loved that still lived there infact this was one of the hardest decisions they had ever had to make and at this current moment they knew it was a decision they had to make; move away from Tree Hill for a bit and move in with Andy, Karen and Lily.

Lucas quickly ran around the car in the direction of his wife's car door, she looked up at him smiling but he walked past her door and ran around the back of the car as Peyton's eyes followed him, he opened the roof of the comet and looked at his freshly woken baby girl, lifting her out with a massive grin on his face as his wife got out of the car and shut the door

"I see how it is" she said as he turned to her "There is a new favourite in town" Peyton giggled

"Well can you blame me" he said turning the little chubby cheeked girl around to her mama

"definetly not" she said leaning in and kissing every spot on the babies face that was exposed

"I don't get kissed like that anymore" Lucas pretended to sulk as Peyton smiled at him and got up on her tipytoes before kissing all over his face in the same way she had her daughters twenty seconds earlier.

"I don't think my granddaughter needs to see that" A voice behind them bellowed up the boardwalk, they turned to see Andy walking towards them with Lily quickly running up behind him, Lucas put Sawyer in Peyton's arms and braced himself for the impact of his not so little anymore sister. Lily jumped into his arms and Lucas span her around as she giggled uncontrollably, her step father not too far behind her with a massive grin on his face, he looked at Lucas as he put Lily on the ground and smiled "My turn my turn" with a chukle in his tone.

"I could try" Lucas said trying to detatch Lily from his legs with no luck whatsoever, Andy moved on to Peyton placing a kiss on her cheek and then turning his doteing attention to the curious baby girl who was looking up at him, Andy had officially met the baby girl yet, he had sent Karen off to get Lucas up on his feet as a father when Peyton was in a coma but he had stayed behind to watch over Lily and keep her as much out of the truth as he could until they actually knew something about how Peyton was, But Karen had come back with a beaming smile and about a hundred photos and videos of the precious new addition. He had asked her how it was possible for her to have that many photos in such a short amount of time of this one little baby and she had responded that she was pretty sure that she didn't sleep the whole trip anyway and that she would sneak into the little girls nursery and watch her sleep, and well take pictures of her. Peyton passed him the little girl and he literally cooed as Peyton smiled looking on. Much like anyone who had looked into those baby blues he was sucked into a dazey haze of instant adoration it was much like the feeling he got when he had held Lily for the first time, the eyes piercing into his soul with the intent of changing his life forever. Andy drew himself out of the haze and looked up at Peyton who was still smiling and Lucas who was running around after his little sister already, lets just say Lily had this ability to get any adult male to eat out of the palm of her hand within seconds.

"Your mum is going to kill me if I keep hogging you two" he said passing back the baby and helping Lucas get some of the bags out of the comet and lock it up, telling him that there was no point getting all the bags out just yet. They walked up the boardwalk together Lily now connected to Peyton's hand " I cant even describe how excited your mum is that you're all here and staying with us"

"Really?" Lucas asked as they continued to walk

"You just wait and see my man, I'm pretty sure that she cried when you called and said you were running late, she thought you were going to cancel on her, she has missed you you know Luke" As Andy finished they approached the boat and a scream was heard from inside the cabin before a pattering of heavy feet approached them. "Don't sink the boat Karen" Andy joked as he showed the Scott family onto the boat. Karen ran out, her hair swept up in a ponytale and an apron around her waist with a massive cheesy grin on her face hugging her son and then daughter in law as tightly as she could "I'm so glad you're here" she said before scooping her granddaughter out of Peyton's arms.

"Come on guys I will show you around the boat while your mum has her moment with Sawy" he said directing them to the upper half of the boat.

For a couple of weeks the plan was to not live on the boat, at night it was too rough and humid to get a good night sleep so Karen and Andy had hired a beach front property for them all to stay at until the weather had chilled out alittle bit, but in the daytime they would take little trips around the place with Peyton and Lucas always welcome to come. As the sun shone brightly throughout the day they all as a group sat out on the deck, Andy driving the boat, Karen and Lily fussing over baby Sawyer and Lucas and Peyton enjoying the family and the scenary that surronded them. As the day quickly approached the end of the beautiful bright sunlight they took Peyton and Lucas to the beach house, letting them unpack as the others took Lily down to the beach for a swim, Lucas followed soon after as Peyton waited for Sawyer to wake up from her nap. 

When Sawyer finally did wake Peyton rugged her up and took her down the road to the beach, she walked across the road looking on as in the distance she could see a dark haired woman presumably her mother in law sitting on the sand wrapped in a blanket throwing her head back in laughter, Peyton smiled and then looked in the direction of Karen's head, she looked on and saw Lucas chasing Lily around on the beach with a ball in her hands, Lily threw the ball to Andy who was standing behind Lucas and Lucas quickly ran up and tackled his step father over, Peyton smiled knowing that not only was Lucas going to make the most amazing father but that this was actually a great decision for them, They needed this family at the moment it was as simple as that. Peyton walked stepped on the sand and leant down taking her shoes off before walking over to Karen and sitting down next to her, Karen was smitten with her granddaughter and was quickly holding her again, not that Peyton minded, she looked on as Karen entertained the little girl. Lily ran up to the girls kicking sand accidently onto the towel they were sitting on so that they didn't get sand on themselves.

"Lily you have to be carefully darling" Karen said looking up at her daughter before indicating that the girl move her face forward and kissing her cheek, Lily quickly put her concentration and attention on Peyton, and Peyton smiled back at her

"Peyton?"

"Yes Lily" Peyton asked trying to look as intently at Lily as Lily was looking at her

"Do you want to play with us? We can have a girls team and a boys team" Lily said putting on her irresistible smile, she already knew how to work it.

"I'd love to" Peyton said standing up from the towel and wiping the sand off her bum "Are you okay with her Karen?" she said looking down at the black haired woman who nodded quickly at her. The sun was setting as the game restarted and Lucas informed Peyton that she should 'watch her back'. Peyton threw the ball to Lily and Andy ran past the little girl lifting her up in the air with the intent of tickling her to get the ball but before he could Lily threw the ball to Peyton who began to run with Lucas fast on her tail, she was nearly at the line that they had drawn to indicate the goal, she ran through the water in the attempt to slow Lucas down and it was working, she was three steps away from the line when she felt her feet leave the ground and felt the water submerge her, she jumped quickly up from the water, completely drenched giving her husband the look of death as he stood still giving her the Lucas Scott look, she walked towards him "I'm going to kill you Luke Scott" she said continuing to move forward

"I love you" he said trying to soften the blow but she still continued to walk towards him "Please don't kill me" he said before darting up the beach with his wife following behind.

Chapter one complete!


	2. Chapter 2

_**Nothings bigger than love: Chapter two**_

She could hear the ocean from where she lay but she didn't want to open her eyes because the pictures in her mind were the most beautiful things, she felt this sudden weight be placed upon her but she didn't panic she just continued to picture the amazing setting that waited for her when she did eventually open those eyes of hers, she felt a prodding at her face and she knew Lucas was trying to wake her so just to spite him she continued to ignore him, going into her own little zone. But he was good the prodding continued and then she felt this cold liquid on her nose, she opened her eyes as fast as possible and when she did two baby blues were looking straight back at her and she did her magical Peyton Sawyer now Scott laugh. As her little five month old daughter who had recently discovered her giggle did her big slobbery smile which lead to Peyton getting a wetter nose, Peyton quickly lifted the girl off with a grossed out look on her face, wiping the slobber off her nose and turning to her laughing husband.

"If anyone else would have slobbered on my nose I would have hurt them, but you're just so gorgeous"

"What happened to you Peyton Sawyer you have turned all mushy on me woman?" he said watching as his wife held their daughter up in the air above her "It would be really funny if she threw up right now" he said with a smirk looking to Peyton

"Ha, ha you are way too hilarious" Peyton said pulling Sawyer back down and placing her between the two of them on her stomach.

They lay there for a while with Sawyer on her stomach squirming around like crazy, laughing and watching on at their beautiful baby girl that had the uncanny ability to make them smile and not make them stop. Eventually Sawyer fell asleep and they put her into her crib, both standing over it watching as she her chest heaved and then relaxed with each breath, watching as her little face sighed as she slept, It seemed as though every moment they looked at her they fell more and more in love with her and with each other because they had created that gorgeous baby in the crib in front of them. Lucas moved closer to his wife putting his arm around her waist. Peyton continued to look at the little girl "I know what you are doing" she said with a smile

"I'm not doing anything" he said with a cheeky grin plastered across his face before moving in and kissing Peyton's neck

"It's not going to work" she said as he moved further up his neck, he made it to her lips and she latched on kissing him, he pushed her up against the crib and it shifted, she looked at him with a 'whoops' look on her face, she laughed as Lucas brought her face back into his. This time instead of pushing her up against the crib he leant down and picked her up wrapping her legs around his waist and attempting to walk backwards as they kissed. They had nearly made it to the bed when the door swung open, both in shock unlatched lips and looked to the person standing in the doorway, the look they were receiving from the doorway made Lucas put Peyton back down on her feet, Lucas looked awkwardly away from the person in the doorway, he knew that obviously his mother had known that he had had sex before he obviously had considering he had a baby girl that his mother absolutely doted on but he didn't want his mother to know he was having sex, no matter how old he was he had always dreaded the birds and the bees conversation that came with having sex. Lucas separated himself from Peyton walking to the doorway but not giving eye contact "Hey Andy" he said with an awkward cough as his step father looked at him with a smirk

"You're mum and I need to talk to you" he said waving to a laughing Peyton who had retaken her position in front of Sawyer's crib. "Just come out when you are ready" he said going to turn

"Hey Andy…"

"I'm not going to tell your mum" he said with a wave walking up the hallway.

Peyton and Lucas had gotten changed and walked up to the kitchen where Karen was standing pouring coffee while Andy sat down at the table reading a newspaper, next to him was Lily who sat drawing a picture. Lucas went and stood next to his mother hoping that she would sense his desperation and make him a cup of coffee too, while Peyton sat down next to Lily

"What are you drawing Lil?"

"A whale" the little girl responded without looking up at well her sister in law, who looked at the drawing at every angle possible trying to see the whale, but she appreciated Lily's artistic talent and stood up kissing the little girls cheek "It's great darling" she said walking over to her husband and taking his mug of coffee before he could take a sip, the look she got afterwards was enough to assign private detail to protect you.

Karen sensed the anger in his sons eyes about his lack of coffee she slapped his arm and passed him another cup, she then looked to Andy and grinned widely "Okay Andy and I really need to tell you something" she said as all eyes looked at her and then to Andy before resting back at her. Karen held up her hand showing off a glistering rock, Peyton screamed running up to Karen and hugging her senseless as Lucas laughed patting Andy on the back, Lily looked at her family confused as her mother crossed the room and kneeled down next to the little girl as Andy took the other side "dad and I are getting married darling"

"Cool" the little girl said with a smile before looking back down and continuing her drawing

"Welcome to the family man!" Lucas said shaking his soon to be legalised step father

"Run while you still can" Peyton whispered not so quietly to Andy before excusing herself to get her awoken daughter at the end of the hallway, she returned five minutes later with a smiling refreshed baby.

"Now one more thing!" Karen said getting the group's attention back again "We are getting married on Sunday"

"What?" Lucas asked confused looking from his mother to Andy back and forth "This Sunday as in two days Sunday?" he asked as his mother nodded

"What about all the wedding planning?" Peyton said looking at Karen while hoisting Sawyer up on her waist

"All covered" she said with a smile on her face as she sipped her coffee

"What about all the people you want to invite?" Lucas asked

"All the people we need there are standing right in this very room" she said with a smile looking on at her smiling family.

The wedding day first approached and to Lucas and Peyton's shock it seemed as though everything was planned: Lucas would be Andy's groomsmen as well as having the duty of walking his mother down the aisle, Peyton would be Karen's bridesmaid while the two little girls would be flower girls, and Karen would obviously be the bride with Andy the groom. The wedding would take place on the boat, they would wait till the minister arrived and then dock out for the day to a nice serene spot on the ocean, they would spend the would dock at the nearest jetty, let the minister off cause he had other commitments and party the night away before dropping Lucas, Peyton and the girls back on dry land where Lucas would babysit his little sister for three nights while Karen and Andy honey mooned on the water, it was all planned and it was all sorted now the day just had to come and they had to enjoy it.

Karen woke up with a smile plastered upon her face and she didn't doubt the fact that it would remain on her face throughout the day, the house was seemingly quite, she didn't realise how loud the boys must actually be considering how silent it was now. Her daughter wasn't loud until she had properly waken in the morning, it wasn't that little Lily was cranky in the mornings it was just that she was so in her shell and shy when it came to first thing in the morning which was weird considering that she was so loud and unspoken the second she snapped out of her shell. Also surprisingly even though it was nine o'clock she hadn't been woken up by the cries of her granddaughter even though the beach house was quite small in its self, Sawyer wasn't much of a crier herself plus Peyton tried her hardest to not disturb the other residents in the house.

Karen had a quick pre-bride shower and did her morning beauty routine before walking out onto the deck and finding three sets of eyes land on her, big grins involved in all cases, one set excited about the wedding, one excited about the possibility of a pancake breakfast and the third little smile may have been the recognition of grandma but it also could have been gas. There was no way to be one hundred per cent sure.

"You ready to get married Miss Roe soon to be Mrs Hargrove?" Peyton said sliding a fresh cup of coffee across the table towards Karen who quickly took the cup and took a sip.

"More than ever Peyton, more than ever" she said taking a seat on the step next to her daughter and stroking her ultra-jet black silky hair as she continued to draw, momentarily looking up to her mum

"Are you going to put on the pretty dress soon mama?" she said with her big eyes

"Yes darling I am" Karen said with a smile

"Can we have pancakes?" the little girl said looking on with the look she knew her mother couldn't say no to while Peyton laughed behind them

"We definitely can" she said with a massive grin, stepping up and taking the girls hand before heading inside indicating that Peyton should come too.

The boys were staying on the boat for the night before the wedding, considering the bathroom was half the size of the one at the beach house and there was no way the girls were giving up that bathroom to prepare. The boys had promised that they would help decorate for the wedding and make sure it was all prepared for the ceremony and all stocked up alcohol wise for the reception, plus Lucas had to make sure the sound system was in working order for Peyton's magical wedding playlist. Peyton had laughed when Andy and Karen had assigned Lucas with decorations, as far as she was concerned he couldn't decorate a cardboard box in kinder. It had been a less than calm evening the night before for the bachelor boys on the boat compared to the women with children less than ten minutes away, the last thing Lucas remembered before bed was swinging off the sides of the boat singing songs really loudly until their other sea folk neighbours yelled at them to be quite but that wasn't the last straw, the last straw was when Lucas nearly lost drunk Andy overboard. Thank god they had the sea breeze to clear out the musty alcohol smell.

"Hair of the dog" Andy said handing Lucas a concoction he had made out of everything that Karen had left in the fridge when they moved out.

"How have you gotten off so lightly?" Lucas asked stroking his temple referring to the sunny demeanour that his soon to be legalised step father was presenting compared to his "please kill me now" demeanour.

"Let's just say I've had more practice!" he said "Actually probably not" Andy said with a chuckle in his New Zealand accent. Before Lucas could make a snappy retort and before Andy could stop laughing his phone rang and he turned into serious wedding planning dude. Andy left the room as Lucas took a reluctant sip of his drink as his wife walked in to deliver the suits on behalf of Karen. Sawyer was on her hip and she looked at the face of her husband "Whoa dude! What happened to your face?" she asked hitching her daughter a little bit.

"Nothing, Andy and I just had some celebratory drinks to you know celebrate the fact that he is marrying my mum last night"

"It looks like you drank a whole liquor store" she said now standing quite close to him dragging her fingers across his face "It looks like you have permanent red eye liner on"

"I'm going for the rocker look"

"I've already dated one rock star! And I would like to remember you that you are about as musically talented as my left shoe"

"Harsh" he said acting hurt

"And my right shoe combined" she said with a chuckle as he scooped his daughter out of his wives arms and putting Sawyer up in the air as he looked up on her, they were all laughing when Andy stormed in in a huff. "What's wrong?" Peyton asked recognising first that something was wrong

"The minister pulled out, his wife forgot to inform him that he got violently sea-sick plus it's his daughter's birthday. I think It is a pretty pour effort to forget that in the first place, What are we going to do now?" he said sitting down putting his head in his hands, sunny demeanour seemingly disappearing.

"Okay be calm be calm we will brain storm" Peyton said beginning to pace the boat before sitting down and then quickly jumping up again "3-minute "

"I can't believe I didn't think of that"

"Okay guys I know you are having a 'oh you're so smart that's why I love you moment' I really would like it if you filled me in on the situation before I have to call Karen"

"On our wedding day the minister couldn't make it so we went onto this website and got Haley to do the ceremony for us"

In about twenty minutes it was all set up and everyone on the boat was pretty pumped for the ceremony, and at that time Peyton had to go back to the beach house and get ready herself for the wedding she said goodbye as Andy informed her not to tell Karen what had gone on with the whole minister thing, thinking it would be sort of cool to surprise Mama Bear.

When Peyton walked in ready to throw on her dress as quick as ever she stopped in the kitchen grabbing her phone and taking a picture of the sight in front of her, Karen sat in her dressing gown her black hair spread to one side of her shoulder with a piece of paper in front of her and a red pencil In her hand next to her daughter who looked exactly the same. Karen looked up at the click and smiled.

"How are my boys?" she said with a smile on her face

"Let's just say full of surprises" Peyton said full of mystery and as Karen looked at her intrigued Peyton interrupted "Let's get you ready to walk down the aisle"

By the time they had gotten ready and decorated it was time for the main event of the day and as an indication that the bride had arrived Lily ran in onto the boat smiling at her smiling technically step father yet the only father Lily had ever known, Lily ran into Andy's arms and he lifted her up kissing her cheek and asking her how she was and how the night previously had been and her response was "Mama looks really pretty and guess what?"

"What?" he said feigning exaggerated excitement

"We had pancakes for breakfast"

"That is so cool, I'm making mum make me pancakes for breakfast" he said before indicating to Lucas that he should inform the girls that it was go time, he made it outside and his mother burst into tears

"Whoa mum what's wrong?" he said walking over to her and bringing her into a hug

"the last half an hour she has been pretty emotional" Peyton said before walking towards the boat leaving mother and son for a little pre-wedding moment

" Lucas I am so proud of you, of the man you are becoming. I know Keith would be so proud of you"

"You too ma" he said leaning down a little so that he could actually look into his mothers eyes

"Gorgeous boy" she said bringing him in for another hug and kissing his cheek

"Okay I better go in so we can get this party started" he said letting go of his mum and heading in the direction of the boat before she reached out and grabbed his hand tightly as he turned to look at her

"I'm so nervous Luke! Can you walk with me? I think I might fall over if you don't" she said as Lucas smiled at her

"Sure mum"

The music was cued and Andy stood nervously alone at the other end of the make-shift aisle, it seemed as though everyone had left him. Peyton walked in and he smiled as she walked hand in hand with Lily who was co flower girl with Sawyer who was In her mother the bridesmaids arms, as the approached Andy, Lily let go of Peyton's hand and took Andy's. he looked down and smiled at her before looking back up and seeing a glimmer of the bride walking into the main wedding room.

Karen looked at the front to Andy before turning back to Lucas who held her hand "Where is the minster?" she asked as Lucas ignored the question which he knew he couldn't avoid forever, they reached the spot and Karen looked curiously but happily at everyone before Lucas let go of her arm

"Who gives this woman to this man?" he said crossing to in front of the room and then crossing back "I do" Lucas said before crossing again "Good" as the family surrounded him.

Karen turned to Andy as she took the other hand that wasn't be leased out by their daughter, "How does this look to you?" Karen asked referring to what Andy had asked that night at Tric.

"Perfect" he said gripping on tighter to his soon to be wife's hand.

Chapter done!


	3. Chapter 3

**Nothings Bigger than Love – Chapter three**

"Okay here we go" he said putting the key into the slot of the white windowey door, when the door didn't give way he gave a chuckle looking back at his wife who was holding their daughter and then used his shoulder to push against the door, and on the second shove the door flew open revealing a musty house that clearly hadn't been lived in for years, he instantly looked back at his wife who had a not so thrilled look on her face "Come on Peyton, it will be great we can just you know open the windows and let some air in, give it a coat of paint and we will be set" he said grabbing her hand and walking into the house, she sneezed as she stepped inside and the dust got up her nose "Welcome Home little girl" he said reaching his arms out to his baby daughter on the eve of her first birthday. Andy and Karen had begun sailing the seven seas again and while Lucas and Peyton were invited to join them they had decided that they were going to keep on travelling on the road before buying a small house on the ocean to live in for a non-disclosed amount of time, probably just while Sawyer was little but they just hadn't fully decided yet.

"Right" Peyton said still not looking thrilled about the whole house thing.

X-x-x-x-x-x

They had spent the morning and suspected that it would continue throughout the majority of the afternoon to unpack the mass of luggage and boxes filled to the brim with their belongings, Lucas was in charge of getting the boxes out of the car and passing them to Peyton over the child proof gate that kept Sawyer running around inside, Peyton would attempt to unpack it as much as she could with Sawyer running around at her feet so at the moment only the necessities were being unpacked. They didn't have a fridge or basic living amenities yet so every piece of food that they needed was sitting in the freezer box that was placed behind the bench. When Lucas did come back into the house he could feel Peyton's hostility towards what he assumed as himself, but he put it all down to the stresses of moving into a new house. "I think I will have a beer" he said with a smile as he walked over to the freezer box and pulled a chilled one out as Peyton shrugged her shoulders, he practically ignored it and went and span the little girl in circles on the floor.

"I can't believe that a year ago we were getting married, and a year ago tomorrow our beautiful little Sawyer was born" he said smiling, he knew that no matter what sort of mood Peyton was in whenever he got sentimental about Sawyer that she would somewhat swoon and forget why she was in her original mood but he could tell something was wrong when his comment seemed to have no effect on her. "Peyton" he said getting her attention, his eyes full of concern she looked up at him "What is going on?" he asked her sitting down on the floor next to where she sat unpacking a box, she smiled briefly as Sawyer got in her face

"Nothing" she said not looking up at him, knowing full well that it wouldn't actually stop him from asking questions, she knew she hadn't fooled him.

"Peyton Sawyer Scott you cannot fool me, I know when something is wrong" he said smiling at her, trying to get her to respond in the same way

"It's our wedding anniversary" she said not looking up

"Yeah I know" he said not completely sure about what she was getting to

"And on our first wedding anniversary we didn't go out for dinner, we didn't exchange presents and we can't have S-E-X" she said covering Sawyers ears "Because we are currently sleeping on an air mattress instead you moved us into the crap shack, on our wedding anniversary, Our daughter has to celebrate her first ever birthday surrounded by dust"

"We just have to leave the windows open for a little while and a…." he said before she interrupted trying to put a positive light on it all

"A fresh coat of paint" she said in a mocking tone "And do you know who is going to have to apply that 'fresh coat of paint' ME" she said the anger in her making her stand up, Lucas laughed still knowing full well that this wasn't what Peyton was truly upset about

"What is actually wrong Peyton? Cause it isn't the house we have lived in worse homes before"

"I am sick of having to do everything while you play solitaire on your computer" Peyton yelled referring to Lucas currently trying to write his next novel and again he laughed, he was too happy with life to get too revved up

"Bullshit Peyton" he said under his breath but she heard him and he wasn't sure that his intention wasn't for her to actually hear

"What did you say?" she said with an outraged look on her face

"I said Bullshit Peyton" he said quieter realising that Sawyer was in the room looking up at him "Either you are going to tell me what is so wrong with you or I am going to continue to annoy you until you do"

Peyton sighed and put her hand to her head before looking at him, her eyes welling up and her lip quivering "You called it our home Lucas" she said as a tear rolled down her cheek "THIS" she said indicating to the space around her "Isn't our home, Tree Hill is our home"

"Peyton" he said standing up to comfort her

"No, Don't" she said before walking over to the box closest to the door and picking up her handbag before stepping over the child gate and walking away from the house, Lucas went to follow her but stopped as his daughter began to cry, he picked her up to comfort her, knowing that Peyton would come back to him when she was good and ready.

"Everything is okay bubba"

X-x-x-x-x-x

When Peyton arrived home Lucas and Sawyer were gone, and after two hours without them returning she set off to find them, the cool breeze made her wrap her cardigan around herself tighter as she stepped down onto the sand and took off her shoes, holding them in her hand as she let the feel of the sand between her toes, in the distance she could see Lucas walking, she took a deep breath and smiled, he could still take her breath away. Eventually she caught up to them, Lucas was bent over walking while holding Sawyer's two hands so she could walk as well, the little girl was beside herself in excitement, laughing and jumping as they walked along. Lucas turned and caught Peyton standing looking on at them smiling "Hey mama" he said before moving his head in the direction of himself indicating that she should come over to them. She walked over and kissed him before linking her hand to a loop in his jeans.

"I overreacted" she said as he looked on at her with a smile telling her with only his eyes that he agreed with her statement and she smiled "My home is wherever you and Sawyer are" she said as he lifted the little girl in her high waisted blue harem pants and her purple long sleeve love heard top into the air and then onto his hip before lightly kissing his wife cheek as Peyton smiled looking on at her gorgeous daughter.

X-x-x-x-x-x

By the time they got home it was dark and the little girl in her arms was fast asleep, holding on tightly to her mother, Lucas took Sawyer off her and walked her up the hallway, and while Peyton knew she didn't have to she followed him up the hall to Sawyers room, he walked in and was taken aback by the painting that was now occupying the white wall that he had left many hours ago

"Peyton what is that?" he asked standing still in front of it

"I gave It a coat of paint, just like you said makes all the difference" Peyton said with a smile before looking at their daughter "Next time that little girl opens her eyes it will be her birthday" she said which made Lucas happy, he knew Peyton was out of her mood because she was all sappy and sentimental again. Lucas put Sawyer in the portable cot that he had set up earlier when Peyton was out and Sawyer needed a nap, she then kissed him tenderly and dragged him out their daughter's bedroom and pushed him up against a wall, both to his surprise and delight. She then pulled away ignoring Lucas' protests and spoke "You know this was the best one year wedding anniversary, you know the part after my hissy fit" she said before he pulled her back into his embrace and kissed her, he then got himself off the wall and walked her up to their bedroom at the end of the hall, he pushed the door open with her back and then stood above their air mattress. Now he wasn't quite sure how it happened, maybe he was just caught up in the moment and forgot his surroundings but he threw himself; wife first down onto the air mattress, the drop down was a lot bigger than he had expected and as they landed with a thud they also landed with a pop. Their faces disconnected while their bodies remained very connected as they looked at the slowly deflating mattress

"Uh-oh" Peyton said with a hysterical laugh

"Whoops" he said joining in on the laughter before looking back down on her and continuing to kiss her in the hopes of having sex right there right that very minute.

X-x-x-x-x-x

Peyton was awake at five forty five, she lay awake practically lying on the floor where the air mattress once sat, she just wanted for her daughter to be awake so that she could start the celebrations, but she knew that the earlier that the little girl woke up the quicker the celebration would be over. She lifted up her singlet to reveal her belly; Peyton put her hand to the scar from her emergency caesarean and rubbed it, feeling a mix of emotions, she was completely absorbed by it, so absorbed that she didn't hear Lucas stir and wake up; she physically jumped when he put a hand on her shoulder, when she realised that he was awake she took his hand and placed it on her scar and he looked on intently as she made him feel it from the left to the right, since the birth of their daughter he had been in awe of his wife's amazing ability, his brother was right the woman next to him was a super hero. At six the heard mumbling over the baby monitor and with that both of them were at their feet practically running to the little girls room. The little girl stood in her crib smiling up as they entered "Happy Birthday darling girl" Peyton said before leaning down and swinging the now one year old Sawyer in the air before passing her to her dad who smothered her in kisses as she laughed.

They took her to the living room and sat her down in front of a pile of presents and she began to, with the help of her excited father open them, the last one was the biggest and when it finally did get opened after the little girl getting distracted at least seven times, it was revealed to be a white rocking horse with a fitted bucket seat so that Sawyer could sit on it on her own without the fear of falling, Peyton put the little girl in it as it began to rock Sawyer smiled all excited, Lucas got the camera out: the amount of photos they had taken just in that year was phenomenal, as he took the photo and there was a knock on the door, as neither of them were expecting anyone they both looked at each other with confusion.

"Who is that?" Peyton asked as Lucas shrugged his shoulders and headed towards the door, as he opened it the sound of her voice filled the room, Sawyer recognised the voice and began to smile and jump in the attempt to get out of the rocking horse.

"There is no way in hell that I was missing my grandbabies first birthday" Karen said before pushing past her son then walking into the living room scooping the little girl out of her mother's arms, practically smothering her in kisses. Peyton walked over and hugged Andy and the little black haired bombshell that was Lily Roe Scott.

"We brought presents" Andy said walking over to where Karen stood and kissing the little girls forehead "And we found this one on the door step" he said with another parcel in his opposite hand.

Peyton had to open the parcel as it was too tough for the little girl to get in to and she was already too excited and distracted to concentrate on anything around her. Everyone turned to Peyton as she made a noise that sounded something like "Aww" she had the widest smile on her face.

"What is it?" Lucas asked looking at his wife

"Brooke!" she said before pulling out and showing the items in the parcel revealing one at a time the items of clothing Brooke had sent, First came out the TRIC, Karen's café and Ravens onesies and then the grey zip up jumper with 'Keith Scott Motors' on the back of it. They all looked around smiling at each other as the items were passed around the small circle that had coincidently made around the birthday girl. Peyton jumped up remembering that she had promised to video call her Tree Hill family, she grabbed her laptop and set it up so that the video was streaming and as soon as the call had connected three faces popped up on their screen, all three looking intently and closely as though looking through the screen itself. "HAPPY BIRTHDAY" they all said in harmony and after a few moments of conversation Peyton noticed something

"Hey where is Brooke? Wasn't she supposed to come to your house this morning?" she asked as a knock sounded on the door and Haley smiled, Peyton didn't know why but she got up and walked as fast as she could to the front door, throwing it open and embracing the brunette who stood on the other side. Brooke had flown to be with them on Sawyer's first birthday, Peyton was in tears.

X-x-x-x-x-x

They all sat around a pile of boxes that represented the kitchen table including Nathan, Haley and Jamie who sat up on one of the boxes, Sawyer sat in Brooke's lap as Lucas and Peyton stood in the kitchen, they walked over with a small plate which had a cupcake with a lit candle that was simply the number one. Peyton looked on with a massive smile as her family; minus a couple of key participants, Sang Happy Birthday to her smiling daughter who looked from all the people surrounding her. Peyton thought of how quickly this year had gone past and knew that before she knew it the next year would be on her doorstep and not so far away. She was drawn back in when Lucas touched her shoulder she smiled at him and he smiled at her as the extended group sang "HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!" one last time as Brooke helped the little girl blow out her candle.

This chapter is finished!

But this story isn't over.


	4. Chapter 4

**Nothings bigger than love – chapter four **

"Sawyer baby come to mama" Peyton said sitting in the rocking chair in her daughter's bedroom. The sun was trying to break free from the clouds; Peyton laughed and then yawned as she looked down at her energetic baby running around in front of her, she so wanted to know where Sawyer got her endless supply of energy so that she could tap into that because she wouldn't lie, she had loved her sleep when she was younger and didn't have Sawyer and while she was certainly getting used to the early mornings she wasn't adjusting as well as she would have liked. "Sawyer" Peyton had gotten up and let Lucas sleep in for a bit longer, she knew it wouldn't be much, probably about twenty minutes but it was the thought that count and he would most certainly do the same for her. "If you don't come to mama, mama will have to come to you" she said as Sawyer looked over to her and giggled "Right that is it I'm going to get you" Peyton said getting up from the rocking chair with a smile on her face ready to chase her daughter, Sawyer made a break for the door, looking back mischievously at her mum but before she could get to the door she was stopped, with a look of surprise she looked up to see what had stopped her , Her father's legs stood between her and the door, Lucas looked down at her with a smile still looking groggy from waking up. Peyton took this opportunity to get to the little girl and tickle her before hoisting her into the air and resting her on her hip.

"Good Morning Baby girl" Lucas said kissing Sawyer's forehead "And Good morning Baby Mama" he said before going in to kiss her on the lips, he was interrupted by his daughters hand between his and Peyton's mouths, Now Peyton was giggling "I thought that they weren't supposed to be creeped out by parents kissing till later"

"Oh No, It is always gross" Peyton said smiling and kissing her daughters hand, Sawyer's hand moved then to rest on Peyton's shoulder as she nuzzled into the space between her mother's neck and shoulder.

"I might just have to try when she is not looking" he said again going In to kiss her, this time he got the kiss but as he pulled away the doorbell sounded, making them both look at each other in confusion. It was the sort of the look that they got when anyone visited because well no one ever planned or promised to visit, they were taking road trips most of the time and friends and family knew that and planned to meet them somewhere on the way, so a ring of the doorbell was shocking to them on the best of days. "Who visits us at six in the morning?"

"Your drug dealer" said Peyton with a laugh "If it's Dan send out a *CAW* and we will head to the panic room"

"You stay here and crack jokes and I will go and get the door" he said smiling and walking out of their daughter's bedroom

"Daddy is getting the door baby" Peyton said bouncing the little girl up and down as she continued to stay connected to her mother

"Peyton it's for you" he yelled up the hallway from his spot in front of the visitor in the doorway.

"Who could it be?" said Peyton while Sawyer unattached herself from her mother's neck and looked up towards her mum curiously. Peyton walked to the front door and looked at the petite frame in the doorway, she was blonde and even though Peyton hadn't seen her in a very long time she instantly recognised her "Jenny?" she managed to get out as a surprised look appeared upon her face as the girl in the door nodded "Little Jenny Jagielski oh my god. It's Jenny Jagielski like Jenny, baby Jenny"

"Can I please come in?" the teenage girl worked up all her courage to say, she had made it all the way here and while she had remembered the stories her father had told her and recognised her from the pictures she so wished that when she had seen Peyton a flood of memories of her with Peyton would all of a sudden materialise and she would recognise her not from the pictures but the memories she herself had, but she couldn't.

"Of course you can" Peyton said before practically throwing Sawyer at Lucas, the moment she saw Jenny all the memories she had shared with the little girl materialised, she had missed this girl, often wondering how she was and who she was, but she had felt ashamed the last time she had left Jake and Jenny in Savannah and she had remained too scared to send an email or pick up the phone, she so wanted to, to check up on Jake and the girl that she absolutely adored, so she walked towards the girl just wanting to hold her so that this seemed less of a dream but as she got closer the blonde burst into tears and that vulnerability took Peyton back to when she was a teenager, and she brought the girl into a tight hug "You're okay, It's all going to be okay" she soothed, those were the words in high school that she would never believe but so desperately needed to hear. Lucas walked past his wife and shut the door behind them before pointing to the hallway and indicating which direction he was heading in, Peyton nodded already drawing her attention back to Jenny. "Do you want to talk about it?" Peyton asked and as the words left her mouth she felt Jenny pull away

"I shouldn't have come here" she said as she got out of Peyton's hold and stepped backwards towards the door.

"Don't be ridiculous, come sit down with me" she said with an understanding yet concerned smile "We don't have to talk about it if you don't want to" she knew herself that she wouldn't want to talk about her problems when the idea of expressing them was forced upon her.

"Okay" she said as Peyton lead her to the couch, she sat down and Peyton sat down next to her, putting a supporting hand on Jenny's leg.

"Where is your dad honey?" she said before Jenny began to cry again and then all of a sudden she started telling Peyton exactly why she was there, like the mention of her father had knocked down that wall that choked her words.

"Next week my mum is getting married to this guy Josh, he is really nice and I really like him but my mum and dad have been getting along lately and I just thought…" she said before her words again got choked up.

"You thought that they would get back together again" Peyton said in a questioning tone as the girl nodded at her

"It was just upsetting me and I didn't want to tell them because I was afraid that they would laugh at me and all my dreams would be crushed, but they were getting crushed already and I just couldn't take it so I got out the phone book and looked for all the Peyton Sawyers, but none of them were you, so I called my grandparents in Tree Hill and told them that I would really like to get in contact with you but that I couldn't find you in the phone book and they told me that you had married Lucas Scott and that you had left Tree Hill however they didn't know where you had gone and that I should call this Haley chick, So I did and I told her who I was and she got really excited which was weird" that statement made Peyton laugh because she could imagine it exactly "So I grabbed my mums bank card and brought a train ticket and well that's how I got here"

"Wow, you have been on a little adventure then haven't you" she said with a smile "Does anyone know you are here?" she asked all of a sudden concern hit her like a brick wall

"Well it is mum's weekend and she is so preoccupied with wedding stuff so I told her I was going to spend the weekend at a friend's house, and of course dad thinks I am with my mum"

"Your dad is going to absolutely freak when he finds out that you are not where you are supposed to be"

"Please don't tell him, I don't want him to know that I am upset cause he will take it to heart, Plus he will be upset that I didn't confide in him, so please, please don't tell him" she pleaded

A sudden realisation hit Peyton and even though the words hurt to come out she knew that she had to ask this question "How do you even remember who I am?" she said it and by the look of hurt on Jenny's face she knew that she had worded it wrong "I mean" she said beginning to clarify what she actually meant "The last time I saw you, you couldn't have been more than two"

"Dad misses Tree Hill immensely, you can tell just by looking into his eyes, it is right there staring at you, and so his eyes would light up and he would get all excited when I asked him to tell me about it, about his life there, about the people he knew. So we would sit down and he would tell me all these Tree Hill stories, mainly about you, he would even show me these pictures that he had. And I loved it so much, when I was having a bad day I would wish that I was in Tree Hill with my grandparents and my dad and Peyton Sawyer, You know he would always tell me about how much he missed you and how much he had loved you" she said looking straight at Peyton, this girl wasn't shy about any of this stuff, she said it as though it was fact, that she knew it all but not from the stories her father had told her but as though she had lived it herself, the stuff she was saying was so close to moving Peyton to tears "I used to ask him why he didn't call you or visit you when I was staying with mum, and he just said that at a certain point the mystic of Tree Hill rubbed away and he knew that life had to be lived and that he had to let you live yours now." She said it which such certainty and Peyton listened as tears ran down her cheeks. "Once when mum and I were fighting I told her that I wished that she had of left me in Tree Hill with you and my dad because then at least I would have a proper mum, she practically turned fireball red and called dad, yelling at him to come and pick me up before she killed me" Peyton wanted to laugh at that for those years that Nicki had attempted to make her life a living hell, but she remembered that Jenny had said that Nicki and Jake were getting on better she thought that if Jake could forgive Nicki for all the stuff that went down that she should do the same. Jenny was finished talking, she had let a sufficient amount out and now she was waiting for Peyton to respond, and Peyton knew this but just was speechless, Jenny picked up on this and changed the subject "So it that your baby?"

"Yeah that is my daughter Sawyer, she just turned one the other week" Peyton said with a smile

"She is gorgeous" Jenny said also smiling before she let out an enormous yawn

"How about you crash in my spare room, No one your age should be up this early" Peyton said as Jenny nodded, Peyton helped her up from the couch and walked her up the hallway

"So who is Haley?" she asked as she followed

"She is my sister in law and my husband's best friend, we all went to high school together and she still lives in Tree Hill, she used to work at Karen's café with your dad"

"Is she the brunette?" Jenny asked going back in her mind and remembering the photos that her father had shown her.

"Yeah, she adored you" Peyton said remembering back to the days when Jenny was a baby in Tree Hill, they reached the red door and as Jenny head in she turned back around to Peyton

"Do you miss Tree Hill at all?" she asked

"Every single day" Peyton said with a smile

"It's in your eyes as well" Jenny said before thanking her for the room and shutting the door.

X-x-x-x-x-x

Peyton paced up and down the living room and kitchen area, back and forth, back and forth. Lucas tried to talk to her but she was so fixated on her own thoughts that she didn't even notice. At some point Lucas had handed Sawyer to Peyton and left to do some odd jobs just out of the town that they were living in but throughout it all Peyton just continued to Pace. Peyton finally decided what to do, and without even a flinch she picked up the phone and dialled Jake's number, she hoped that he hadn't moved or changed the number, she sighed a small sigh of relief when she heard his voice on the other end of the line.

"Hello it is Jake" For a moment she just listened to the silence, too afraid to speak a word, it had been so long since she had last heard his voice. "Hello" he repeated and this time she finally worked up the courage.

"Hey Jake it is Peyton" she swore she heard his breath catch on the other end of the receiver

"Wow! Long-time no talk" he said and she could tell that he had a smile on his face, it was so funny that you could have not been romantically involved with someone for so long or even speak to someone for so long yet know their mannerisms so intimately, She forgot the severity of the situation and found herself smiling. "Jenny will be so pissed that you called when she was at Nicki's, she is completely and totally fascinated by you" she felt herself gulp out of instinct

"Speaking of Jenny, well umm" she said attempting to keep the courage that had made her call him in the first place.

"What is going on Peyton?" he said and by the tone of his voice she could tell that he was confused and concerned at the same time and that all the way in Savannah his eye brows were arched.

"Look I don't know where you think Jenny is but…"

"She is at Nicki's" he interrupted

"Actually" Peyton let out a nervous giggle and she knew that he could tell it was one because of his tone "She is in my spare bedroom Jake"

"Doing what?" he said with a laugh, not knowing what was actually going on at this very moment

"Sleeping"

"What the hell is she doing in Tree Hill?" he said his tone all of a sudden getting very serious

"Well actually I don't live in Tree Hill at the moment, Lucas and I…Not the point Peyton not the point" she said attempting to get herself back on the right wave length "She showed up on my doorstep this morning saying that she needed a break"

"Did you invite her?" he said practically ignoring what Peyton had said

"What? No Jake I didn't" she could hear the anger in his voice

"Then why would she be there? It's not like you have had ANY contact with her since she was two"

"Jake none of that matters, Stop yelling, No amount of it will change this weird scenario we are in right now. All I know is that your daughter, who by the way I have missed and thought about pretty much every day since I left you two in Savannah and who I adore with all my heart and by the way you were the one that sent me away, I was ready to marry you" Peyton's cheeks were red hot, she had all of sudden been thrust back into high school, she was so happy with Lucas but it didn't mean she couldn't get worked up about this "I loved you both so much, and I felt so guilty for just leaving and I hated myself for so long for not being there for that girl Jake, but it wasn't my place anymore" she recognised she was so off topic "I mean All I know it that your daughter is in my spare bedroom and I thought that I would be considerate and call you even though she asked me not to"

"Peyton" he said with this vulnerability in his voice as though he was taken aback by her sudden outburst.

"You know what, you deserved to know so I have done my duty so goodbye" she said, she couldn't really work out why she was so irrationally angry

"Peyton"

"What?" she snapped

"Where are you?" he said clearly as though he had been emotionally drained by all of this

X-x-x-x-x-x

Jenny woke up in the spare bedroom; she stepped out of it and headed towards the noisiest part of the small beach home which happened to lead her to Sawyer's nursery. Peyton was sprawled out on the floor as Sawyer sat on top of her, Jenny was all of a sudden mesmerised by the idea of how Peyton Sawyer was with her when she was as young as Sawyer and it made her crave that closeness again. Peyton finally realised that Jenny was standing in the doorway; she had been relieved after her conversation with Jake but now for the second part of that conversation.

"Hey Jenny did you sleep well?" Peyton asked lifting Sawyer off her as she began to stand.

"Yeah I did" she said matching the smile on Peyton's face

"This is Sawyer, Sawyer this is Jenny she used to be as small as you were and very special to mummy"

"Thank you for letting me crash here" she said not letting herself react to it all until she was in some sort of private space

"Don't thank me yet, I called your dad" she just let it out, it seemed like the best way.

"You what?"

"He needed to know where you were and that you were okay"

"He thought he knew where I was and everything was fine"

"And then what? What happens when they found out that you weren't at that sleepover"

"I trusted you. I shouldn't have come here" said Jenny storming out of the room

Peyton turned to Sawyer and looked at her in the eyes "And I thought your tantrums were bad"

X-x-x-x-x-x

To be continued.


	5. Chapter 5

**Nothings bigger than love – chapter five **

Lucas drove the comet back into town, he had spent the whole morning doing jobs and now he was heading home, he wondered if his wife had stopped pacing yet, it really wouldn't surprise him if she hadn't she couldn't hide it she loved and cared for the girl that had shown up on their doorstep that morning, so did he, but in a completely different way, he knew the bond that Peyton shared with Jenny and the bond Peyton shared with Jake, he cared for and loved Jenny as any of the teens who were friends with Jake in high school did, he was their friend and that made Jenny important to them all. The sight of Jenny at six o'clock that morning had made him so excited but it also made him dig up a feeling that he had tried so hard to bury down in his mind, this feeling of guilt, he felt guilty for not staying in contact with a fantastic guy, who in the start of all the madness that was his high school life and through all the hardship was there for him, Lucas felt guilty for not being there for him and for his daughter, and while he didn't want to admit it to Peyton sometimes he felt guilty for taking Peyton away from Jake and Jenny, he loved her and he loved their life together and truly believed that they were destined to be together but sometimes that feeling of guilt arose from him. Right now that guilt was at its peak, he saw the look on Jenny's face and the look on Peyton's face, that I've been missing you my entire life look and it just hurt him inside, he supposed that's why he had decided that all his jobs had to be done today, so that Jenny and Peyton could have some time together, he wouldn't give up this life for anything but the least he could do was give them some time to talk and re acquaint themselves with each other again. As he drove up the road he decided that he needed to get these thoughts out of his mind so he leant forward and put in one of the car mixes that Peyton had made for the many trips that they had planned on making, he sped up but then came to a sudden halt, before pulling to the side of the road. He jumped out of the car and ran after the crying blonde who he had sworn was at his house, he stopped her and turned her around, her eyes were puffy and red "Hey are you okay?" he asked her as her lip quivered and she threw herself into his arms, Lucas was shocked at first, he knew this girl but she didn't really know the first thing about him, he could be a psychopath but he threw his arms around her nevertheless "It's all okay, everything is going to be okay" he soothed, swaying from side to side, he didn't know why he was doing this, it always worked on Sawyer and it seemed like it was working on Jenny too. He didn't force her to talk, he just swayed and let her cry on his shirt, she wasn't tall enough to cry on his shoulder, Eventually he had convinced her to come back to the house with him and then helped her into the comet, they sat in silence for the first five minutes of the twenty minute trip and then Jenny had turned to Lucas.

"This Is Peyton's car isn't it?" she asked as he turned and smiled at her, just glad that the silence had ended, he was the sort of person that liked to talk about their problems instead of just letting them stew, well most of the time.

"Yeah it is" he said looking to the dash and then back at her

"You wrote a book about it, dad read it you know" she said looking over at it "He loved it, and he told me that one of his greatest friends from Tree Hill wrote it" she had managed to make both of the adults she had come across this morning speechless "Dad told me about you" she said as Lucas gulped

"Oh yeah?" he said, his voice going up an octave

"Not bad stuff good stuff!" she said recognising the worry on his face "He told me how when he was scared of introducing me to the world you convinced him too and that you were a really a great guy" she said with a smile that matched Lucas' who now felt really guilty for not staying in contact as they pulled into their driveway.

X-x-x-x-x-x

They walked into the house and Peyton was standing with an anxious look on her face, she had put Sawyer to bed and then gone to check on Jenny but was alarmed to find that the girl and her backpack were missing from the spare bedroom, she had felt like throwing up and if Lucas didn't have the car she would have thrown Sawyer into the comet and driven to find her, instead she sat at home stressing out completely and totally. A look of relief hit her as the blonde girl walked back into their beach front home, she immediately walked over to the girl and wrapped her in her arms as Lucas smiled and again made himself disappear.

"I'm really sorry Peyton" said a muffled Jenny who was held rather tightly in Peyton's grip, Peyton wasn't ready to lose her again.

"Stop apologising to me, I love having you here and I am so very glad that you came here today and I am in no way trying to force you out, it is just that I know and I have seen with my own eyes how much your dad loves you, I also know how much it hurt your dad when he didn't have you and he didn't know where you were. I witnessed that pain and that pain killed me so there is no way that I will purposely cause that pain Jenny, not ever" she said as she began to get choked up, as she again re-lived the past she tried so hard not to play.

"I can't breathe" she said as Peyton released her realising that the more she got into the speech she had just made the tighter she held Jenny, when Jenny composed herself she smiled at Peyton "I am glad you called him"

"Really?" she said shocked at the teenager's response, although thrilled to hear it she remained cautious

"Sort of, I mean I'm just glad that you care enough about him to do that" she said, clearly she felt it was her duty to protect her father and Peyton was glad to hear it.

Peyton smiled "Would you like to go through some photo albums with me?" she asked, which made Jenny match her with an excited grin.

X-x-x-x-x-x

They spent the evening telling stories to each other about their lives, Lucas had made them dinner while Jenny played with Sawyer, Peyton put Sawyer to bed before they decided to watch a movie, Jenny reluctantly chose 'Bring it on' after Peyton's enthusiastic persuasion to do so and Lucas' begging for her not to. Jenny sat with Peyton on the couch, Peyton's arm over her shoulder as Lucas sat on the arm chair in the corner smiling on at the girls while trying desperately to avoid watching the movie that they had selected, he was thrilled when his mobile rang.

"Hey Haley" he said walking out of the living room onto the decking of their small home "You just saved me from having to watch Bring it on, you are officially my hero"

"So I have been keeping something from you for like a week now and I am way to excited to keep it any longer, and anyway it is more for Peyton so I think I can tell you, If you promise that you won't tell her until it actually happens"

"Let me guess what it is Hales, you got a call from Jenny Jagielski"

"How did you know?" Haley asked truly confused about how her best friend had managed to read her mind.

"I heard your scream all the way from my house" he joked "She is here Hales, she showed up on our door step this morning"

"Oh this is so exciting, isn't this exciting?" she asked and Lucas could tell that Haley was jumping around, he laughed when he heard Nathan enter the room clearly taken back by the sight he saw as she said away from the receiver "Don't look at me like that"

"Haley earth to Haley" he said with a smile as she laughed "Tell me a story"

"Today I was out to lunch with Brooke and I went up to get something to drink and when I went to sit down I wasn't looking and I sat down at the wrong table and started talking to this person that I thought was Brooke" she said as Lucas laughed and she began to giggle "It was this old guy and I swear he nearly had a heart attack, I apologised really quickly and moved back to my table and Brooke was laughing so hard that I was sure that she was going to wet her pants" she said finishing off her story, it was a thing they did now, they would call each other whenever they had a spare moment and did everything in their power to make the other laugh in the short amount of time before one of them had to go and do yet another day to day activity, Today was Haley's turn and it had definitely worked on him. As she went to tell him another he noticed someone walking up the path to their house, he smiled and then turned his attention back to his best friend on the other end of the phone

"Hey Hales I have to go" He said lifting himself off the railing and walking to the small path

"Love you Luke, give my girls a kiss for me and take lots and lots of pictures please"

"Love you Hales" he said with a laugh that made Haley weary

"Dude I'm not kidding"

"Have to go Haley, I'll call you back and tell you a story tomorrow and what have we talked about with this whole Dude thing" he said before finally convincing Haley to hang up the phone. "Man" he said walking up to Jake and shaking his hand, he had the similar wide smile going on for him as well.

"Hey dude" he said with a laugh, teasing him for the conversation he had overheard. Lucas laughed and brought him inside.

"How is it possible that this movie is STILL going?" he said walking into the house as his wife stood up still unaware of Jake's presence

"Luke there is no need to be aggressive be be aggressive" she said dancing over to him before seeing Jake and practically leaping at him "Jake" she said as she stood on her tiptoes hugging him.

Jake laughed "Well, well if it isn't Peyton Sawyer, I mean Peyton Sawyer Scott. I do believe that you have something of mine" he said with a smile

"Yeah she fell asleep during Bring it on"

"That's my girl" he responded unusually proud of the fact that Peyton presented to him

"How about a beer Jake?" Lucas asked still unable to tear the smile away from his own face, it was so nice to see his old friend, just looking at him reminded him of their friendship, he felt like he was back at school.

"Sounds great" he said also smiling

"Where is the beer Peyton?" he asked searching the fridge up and down practically frantic about the whole idea that there was no beer in the entire household

"What beer?" she asked really not one hundred per cent sure what he was actually talking about.

"The stuff that when I was writing the shopping list you said we had"

"I never said we didn't have beer, I said we needed it" she answered him

"I said do we have any beer and you said yep"

"No you said do we need any beer and I said yeah" she said as he went over to the bench and picked up his wallet

"You're a pain in the ass" Lucas said with a laugh "Okay I'm going to get some, you are lucky that you're so darn pretty" he said kissing her cheek and walking out the front door.

It was awkward for a moment, neither one quite sure on what to say to the other, it had been so long since they had last spoken and the last time they spoke it had been so emotional and heartbreaking that Peyton was scared that if she opened her mouth to speak she would burst into tears right there in front of him, so she chose to speak to him about something that really didn't need to much emotion "Do you want some of the most delicious food on the planet?" she asked him, he just looked thrilled that the silence was over

"hit me" he said, it seemed like the only logical thing he could manage, he too was feeling awkward around Peyton but he was mainly feeling awkward for feeling awkward around Peyton.

"Okay" Peyton said with a skip in her step before getting two spoons and heading towards the fridge pulling out two small jars.

Peyton handed one of the jars to Jake and he examined it before looking up with a smile "Baby food?"

"Ah yeah" she said in a mocking matter of fact tone, as though to laugh at the stupid question

"Wait" he said coming to a realisation "Do you have a baby or does this stuff just float your boat?"

"Well it definitely floats my boat but follow me" she said heading up the hallway with Jake cautiously following her, they approached the closed door

"Peyton Scott are you trying to get me into a bed?" he said momentarily forgetting his awkwardness

"Totally" she joked before opening the door, only turning back to indicate for him to be as quiet as possible, Peyton lead him over to the crib, she herself put her hand in and stroked the sleeping little girls head "This is Sawyer Brooke Scott" she whispered to him

"Well she certainly inherited your bed hair" he said as she jokingly slapped him

"That cut deep" she said pretending to be upset by his statement

"I'm kidding Peyton, she is absolutely gorgeous" he said as he put his hand into the crib and stroked the little girls head.

"I know isn't she the bees knees" Peyton whispered enthusiastically

"Okay I wouldn't have sent you back to Lucas if I thought he would turn you into a bigger nerd" he said before Peyton got all teary eyed and awkward around him all over again, and she thought that the awkward stage was over after her baby food bit. He recognised this "This is ridiculous Peyton" she looked up at him "So we haven't talked since that night in Savannah before Nathan and Haley's wedding, so we left it on the terms that we left it on, We were friends before we were.." he gulped "Lovers! And like I tell Jenny at some point we have to live our lives, I am happy with my life and I can tell by just looking around that you are happy with yours, I can tell that I made the right decision, so right this very minute I want my friend back"

"I want my friend back too" she said as she got all teary and choked up, Jake walked over to her and again they hugged

"Now can we stop being awkward around each other" he said as she nodded against his shoulder. "Thank you so much for calling me" he said an arm over her shoulder as they left the babies room

"I know how much that girl means to you Jake; it wouldn't have felt right not telling you"

"She is my whole world Peyton; do you get what I am talking about?"

"But what about you Jake? Fair enough she is your world but who is taking care of you?"

"I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself Peyton"

"Bull crap. Who else?"

"I am socialising, I have friends" he said with a smile on his face as they sat down on the couch

"I'm not kidding. Yes I know that she is your whole world, I totally get that, I have known that for well forever Jake and I have and always will commend you from your intense strength, seriously having Sawyer has made me realise how fricken amazing you actually are but who is there at the end of the night when you are sick to death of the world, when they argue with you or cry and you just want to crawl up in a ball, who is there then Jake? Who then?" she asked with a seriousness in her tone

"I understand what you are saying but I have been doing this forever Peyton, I'm used to it all"

"You know my dad did it too, he sacrificed his love life and a lot of that happiness for me, and it wasn't just me he lost the love of his life but Jake I hate the idea that you are all alone"

"I have been with girls, and I've had girlfriends. Don't smirk at me like that Blondie. At the moment I just don't have time for that, I have Jenny four to five days a week and the days left over I take on extra shifts or I do gigs or stalk boys that show interest in her, One day you never know I might find the woman of my dreams, well the third one if I count you and Jenny, But I am not unhappy. Why would I be unhappy when I have so many amazing people in my life and such an amazing life at that?" with that intense conversation over Lucas walked in with a smile that Peyton recognised as the 'I have beer' smile. Jake had lifted up Jenny and put her into Peyton and Lucas' spare bedroom, they had decided that it was way too late for Jake to drive all the way back to Savannah that night and that he would stay and leave tomorrow morning when Jenny was awake and they had a chance to talk. And after a few beers with Lucas the two boys set up the couch for Jake to sleep on for the night.

X-x-x-x-x-x

He lay awake staring up at the roof, he felt his wife stir beside him and he found himself looking at the clock, it was two in the morning and in all likelihood Sawyer would be awake in about three hours. "What are you doing?" she said as she put her tired head on his chest as she looked up at him with her sleepy eyes

"I'm sorry Peyton" he said looking down at her

"What for?" she said her brain unable to make the connections that she usually made in connection to what her husband was talking about

"I feel as though when we started dating I didn't really think about Jake, I was just happy that we had coordinated ourselves together, I didn't worry about it then but I can't help thinking that I took you away from them, from Jake and Jenny, I feel that you lost out on knowing Jenny as she grew up because you were scared that I would be threatened" he said continuing to look up at the roof as his wife sat up

"Lucas Eugene Scott me not knowing that girl or not remaining in contact with Jake had nothing at all to do with you, well that it not true" she said as he looked at her like she had ripped his heart out "But it wasn't anything you did" she said trying to clarify "It was the fact that I was still so madly in love with you and that I was embarrassed that I had hurt Jake, It wasn't because of you Luke, it wasn't your fault" she said leaning up and kissing him "But I love you for caring"

X-x-x-x-x-x

The next morning had gone by so fast, they spent some time just sitting and talking but as it began to get closer Peyton dreaded having to say goodbye to them, and Jake was in Sawyer's nursery talking to Luke so Peyton took the opportunity to talk to the girl.

"Sit with me" said Peyton sitting down on the couch "Now, you are always, always welcome here, in fact I would love it if you came and visited me, I have let you down Jenny. I disappeared off the face of the earth from you and I shouldn't have, I am so incredibly proud of what you have become and I promise to make more of an effort with you and for you. But don't ever underestimate the love that your dad has for you, and I know from experience if you have got a problem or your falling to pieces that your dad's a fantastic person to be around, he will always be there to break the fall and pick up the pieces, you have to promise me you will take care of him for me, Okay?"

"Okay"

"Now give me a hug" said Peyton standing up as Jake walked out of the nursery declaring that it was time for them off

"Go thank Lucas please Jenny" said Jake walking back into the living room "We should probably hit the road if we want to get home in time for her to go to school tomorrow"

"I'M HAPPY TO STAY LONGER" yelled Jenny down the hall

"Come on you goof" said Jake pulling Peyton into a hug

"You take care of yourself sexy single dad Jake, You have done an amazing job with Jenny, you should be proud. And don't put your life on hold, okay! I can't stand the idea of you sitting alone in your living room eating a sad TV dinner when Jenny isn't there"

"I like TV dinners"

"Promise me you will take care of yourself Jake"

"I will. And to you I say good luck raising that gorgeous girl of yours, what she doesn't know yet is that she has the most incredible woman taking care of her, a lovely, generous, caring, funny, loving and artistic woman. Please don't be a stranger Peyton; I have missed you so incredibly much."

"If you make me cry..."

"I hope you are the happiest and most content girl in the world, because you deserve that and more Peyton Sawyer"

"If I raise Sawyer at least half the way you raised Jenny then I know that she will be okay, even if she has a mum like me and a goof for a dad. Cause you are doing the greatest job with that girl Jakey J" she said before they again hugged as Jenny walked up the hallway with Lucas holding little Sawyer Scott.

"You ready to go dad" said Jenny as she walked out with Lucas and Sawyer

"Yeah baby" he walked up to Lucas and held out his hand "You take care of these girls" he said as they shook hands." Bye gorgeous girl" he then said kissing Sawyers head.

X-x-x-x-x-x

They had pulled up on the side of the road at a coffee cart across from an isolated beach, the cold air made sure that there were limited amount of people on the beach; in fact there was less than ten. Jenny sat leaning against the boot of the car staring off into the vast mass of ocean in front of her, Jake smiled as he joined her, knocking her hip with his and sending her flying, she laughed and then went back to her original position as her dad passed her a drink.

"So baby girl are you going to tell me what sparked this sudden adventure?" he said turning to her and smiling

"I don't want to tell you it is embarrassing" she said moving her sunglasses from the top of her head to over her eyes

"Jenny Jagielski" he said using his stern father voice that he saved for special occasions

"It was mums wedding, You two were being so nice to each other and I had this hope inside of me that that meant that you might get back together and we could be a family" she said before wiping a tear away from just under the black lens of her glasses.

"Jenny" he said his voice strong as it always was except it wavered ever so slightly, unsure on how to approach this topic "I will always love your mum because she gave me you"

"But you two will never get together" she said squashing her own dreams and turning back to reality "it is okay I get it, Mum did some pretty horrible stuff to you when I was a baby, I really totally get it"

"I love you kiddo, but next time you want to have an impromptu trip to visit Peyton or any out of town friend, Let me come with you" he said as she nodded and he threw his arm over Jenny's shoulder and dragging her in so that her head rested on his shoulder.

"I love you daddy"

"Right back at you" Jake said before kissing the top of his daughters head.

X-x-x-x-x-x

Chapter finished, Story incomplete!


	6. Chapter 6

**Nothings bigger than love – chapter six**

"But I don't want you to go" he sulked looking at his wife who slammed the boot shut and then crossed to the driver's side of the car

"Come on Luke" she said as he followed her around the car "I told you that if you really wanted to you could come and visit Derek with me but you know that you have chapters due for your book Luke and I will not help you escape that" she said as he looked on at her unable to respond, she put one hand on each side of his face, pulling his head in and kissing him on the lips "Now get to work cause I can't be your sugar mama forever" she said before letting go of his face and sitting down in the car "Say bye to daddy Sawy" she said as they both directed their gaze to the curly blonde haired two year old who sat contently with a colouring book in her car seat in the back of the comet, the little girl looked up and waved, it was so weird for Lucas for the past two years he had barely spent a moment apart from Sawyer and even Peyton, it was the benefits of living so isolated and now Peyton was taking Sawyer away for four days to go and visit her brother Derek and his family. Lucas waved goodbye to both his girls as Peyton shut the car door, looking back at their daughter and smiling before setting off down the road, Lucas had watched as the headed out of sight which took a while because their little beach town had one main road out and it was completely straight. They had decided that if Lucas had no distraction at all he would have a higher chance of actually getting something done, he could always think of an excuse but with Peyton away there wasn't the distraction of a crying baby or an energetic baby that constantly wanted to be picked up by its father, There was no Peyton watching soap operas on the couch, and most especially there was no car to provide as transport out of the commitment he had made in writing another book. Lucas sat down in front of the computer screen and opened a fresh word document and began his often long process of sitting and staring at the open word document, willing his mind to think of the perfect opening sentence. After about five minutes of frustratingly sitting he stood up and walked over to the fridge to get a beer, perhaps an alcohol buzz would stimulate the thinking muscles, he reached into the fridge and picked the first one out, he let out a laugh as he realised how well his wife knew him the bottle had a pink post-it note stuck to it that said "Five minutes really?" he opened the top and took a sip before returning to his computer screen watching.

X-x-x-x-x-x

Peyton pulled up the driveway of the elegant two story home that belonged to her step-brother Derek, she hadn't realised how close it actually was to where they were living at the moment, compared to the other homes of people that they loved so dearly this one was practically and metaphorically around the corner from them. It was a very peaceful and fun looking street and she couldn't help but laugh thinking of Derek as a Desperate Housewife. It was a court and Derek's house sat directly in front of you as you turned into the court itself. Peyton hopped out of the car, throwing her handbag over her shoulder and lifting Sawyer out, deciding that she would leave her bags in the car until she knew they were actually home.

"Come on Derek" she said standing impatiently at the doorstep holding her daughters hand as they both did matching 'need to pee' dances, after five minutes of waiting at an unanswered door she decided that she would investigate the cheering she could hear from the back on her brothers enormous house. Peyton walked to the big gate hand in hand with a two year old Sawyer and as she did she was welcomed by the family dog jumping all over them, She quickly hoisted up a Sawyer who she could tell was petrified by the tighter grip that her daughter had administered the second that she lay eyes on the dog.

"Buddy down" a voice bellowed from in front of them and as the dog obeyed Peyton let out a smile back to the man walking towards them with a matching smile "Well if it isn't my sister Peyton" Derek said as they both walked forward, but before he could even reach her two blurs ran past him yelling

"AUNTY PEYTON" and latching onto Peyton's torso were Peyton's niece Mia and her nephew Andre, she laughed handing Sawyer to her older brother over the top of the kids and then leaning down to give them a proper hug. By the time she had leant back up and hugged her brother his wife had appeared from her spot on the grass with a smile on her face, Mandy and Peyton had only really met a couple of times, Peyton didn't even get to see Derek that much but the moment that Mandy and Peyton had met they had got along really well, they had become increasingly close when Derek had deployed and she was left alone with their two children, Peyton hadn't been able to visit often but she lived for the phone calls that they would have, revealing to each other their deepest fears. Peyton quickly clasped her hands around the pettily framed woman as her niece and nephew broke into a fight and began running around the large spaced backyard, the dog not understanding the predicament which had led to the fight interpreted it to be a game and began chasing the kids with its tongue lopping to the side and its tail wagging.

"So what did I interrupt?" Peyton asked as Sawyer was placed back on the ground and quickly made her way back to her mother's hand. Sawyer Brooke Scott was this crazy fireball of giggles and energy and this had been the same since she was an infant, buckets full of personality shooting from her with a simple smile or a position taken by the little girl but what surprised both Peyton and Lucas was that their little fireball around people she wasn't completely aware of on a personal level she would become so shy that she would recoil into this placid little blonde curly thing, people would even comment on how placid and graceful the little girl was and Peyton would just stand back and laugh knowing full well that when that person left the game was on again. Sawyer just needed about ten minutes to warm up to people, Lucas had once contemplated the idea that Sawyer did it on purpose to lull people into a false sense of security and then when she felt they were lulled she would release her crazy.

"We were playing baseball" he said as all three of the adults with Sawyer at hand walked further into their extensive backyard.

"Oh I am glad, I am really good at baseball" Peyton said with a laugh.

X-x-x-x-x-x

Lucas had received the call from Peyton telling him that they had made it to Derek's and not so subtly reminding him that he had a deadline that he had to meet, he had promised her that he was up to his ears in words that filled and described his next piece of work, telling her that he had at least the bare minimum of chapters that he needed to have completed and while she hadn't totally believed him, for good reason as he had only written six sentences, she wished him luck and hung up the phone. Just her voice alone made him miss her like crazy, the laugh was the killer though, it was so raw and packed with emotion that each time she let out her crazy laugh he felt his heart melt and wanted to kiss her senseless, unfortunately you can't kiss the receiver without feeling a little bit weird. Lucas had this sudden epiphany, he told himself that it would be inspiration but he knew deep down that it may not actually have that precise effect it may just the fill the silence that was so abundant in their small house which seemed so large when it wasn't filled with chatter and pure joy.

Lucas stood up got himself another beer and then set up the television so that the video camera was connected, he had gotten it when they had set off from Tree Hill with their baby girl so that he could capture every moment of triumph and every single milestone, he had promised Haley that he would be constantly emailing videos so that she didn't feel left out, Brooke had instantly taken the same stand as Haley, It was Peyton's idea to include Larry Sawyer in the video sharing and when they had moved away from Andy, Karen and Lily, Karen had demanded that he film everything and send it to her instantly, Lucas had asked her if she would just prefer a whole 'big brother' scenario where their house was constantly recording which would provide Karen with constant video streaming of everyone's activities, they had all laughed when she had said that that option was definitely the one that she preferred. It certainly wasn't designed for this purpose but hey it was going to work for him. He pressed play and sat down onto the couch and his screen was filled with excitement and he felt as though he was back on the beach when Sawyer had learnt to take her first steps;

_They had still been living in the beach house that they had been hiring with Andy and Karen, Sawyer was about ten months old and they were all completely smitten with the gorgeous little girl especially Larry Sawyer who had come up to visit them. They had all decided that they would go on a sunset walk across the beach and Lucas had brought the camera along because Haley was feeling neglected and wanted video evidence that they were all alive and well because apparently photos just weren't cutting it, so they had all sat down on the beach to watch the sunset, they were on the furthest edge of the beach from where they were actually staying. Lucas held the camera as he sat down next to Larry who sat there awe struck of how happy his daughter was with her small yet perfect family and Lucas hoped that that showed on the camera screen, Andy was sitting with Sawyer a couple of metres in front of them building a sand castle and digging a hole, well Andy was building a sand castle and digging a hole for the little girl while also trying to prevent her from eating the sand she sat _upon, Lucas chuckled as he heard Andy say to the little girl _"It doesn't taste nice" with that he tilted the camera up and got the view of where the ocean began, in the_ _water stood Peyton, Karen and Lily all connected by hands jumping waves, Lily then splashed Peyton and both Karen and Peyton began to chase her through the water. He was distracted momentarily by Andy's shocked and shaking voice "Luke" he said all weary, Lucas directed the camera back to Andy and let out a laugh as Andy looked on all excited as Sawyer stood up leaning against the sand castle, they had all been on high alert for the first steps since Peyton had become obsessed with a certain baby book which told her the alarming figures of how many parents miss their children's first steps, not wanting to be a statistic she had told them that if they thought that Sawyer might walk that they were to call her immediately and that if she missed it they would all have to accept the consequences, let's just say that there was a lot of false alarms but from the look on both Larry and Andy's faces he knew that they both believed that it was just about to happen "PEYTON" he hollered down the beach, she instantly turned not knowing exactly what her husband was alerting her to, she stopped still as Lucas pointed down at Sawyer, Andy was now standing up doing the exact same thing as Lucas, Peyton paused allowing Lily to splash her, she barely noticed, she darted up the beach and stood about a metre away from Sawyer "Come to mama baby" she said with a smile beaming across her face, Karen and Lily came running up the beach too, at this point everyone just stood in silence watching with awe stricken looks on their faces and Sawyer took five wobbly sets to her mother, who scooped her up in her arms and span her around kissing her and praising her as everyone around them let out excited yells, Karen stood in the corner of the screen with a goofy grin on her face with tears streaming down her face. _

Lucas smiled as more and more of the special memories he had had of the past two years flashed up on the big screen in front of him; he watched Sawyer's first words, and birthdays and Christmases. He laughed as he watched Sawyer with a dummy in her mouth finding him lying behind the couch, her big smile being blocked by her dummy and her eyes lighting up as she saw him, he watched as she talked incoherent sentences to him as she sat in the bath tub as though she was telling him a story, all these emotions coming across her face as Peyton stood just in the hallway laughing so hard that he could still hear her in the distance, the next video began with music blaring in the distance and the camera moving up the hallway before being exposed to excessive amounts of light as the doors that opened onto their front deck sat wide open, the camera moved past the kitchen and living room and through the majority of the music, it finally stopped in the doorway looking out onto the deck to where Lucas and Sawyer were dancing and rocking out to music, the laugh that he loved so much was clearly noticeable behind the camera. Then there was a video that he recognised as later that fine afternoon after the dancing, Peyton, Lucas and Sawyer all sat on the deck, Sawyer was chowing down on an icy pole as the heat was extreme, and between licks of her icy pole Sawyer sat singing along loudly to the music that played out onto the deck, these videos were most recent. Peyton laughed and then spoke to the little girl as Lucas recorded from face to face "You got your daddy's beautiful singing voice Sawyer" she said it as Lucas directed the camera towards him before she began hysterically giggling

"Yeah and yours is so much better Peyt." He responded from behind the camera. As that video finished he clicked on the next one, this one was way back when Sawyer was a baby, he could tell by his own and Peyton's different hairstyles, he remembered that it was taken on their way to see his mum, they had stopped off to stretch their legs and breath in some fresh air at a jam-packed playground, Lucas remembered standing hand in hand with Peyton who still wasn't completely recovered from her caesarean, so they walked slowly as Lucas pushed the bassinet style pram in front of them;

_She was laughing so hard, he was concerned that she was going to pop her stiches and they were going to be in a whole lot of trouble but he couldn't help but smile at her, They were sitting down on one of the only vacant benches in the whole park, Peyton recorded the sleeping baby in the pram before moving the camera up to face Lucas._

"_Now Luke baby darling, Can you tell me why we are filming this iconic moment?" she said still trying to stop laughing _

"_I had a protective father moment" he said not looking into the camera but just down from it _

"_What did you do Lucas?" she asked and although he couldn't see it he knew she was smiling _

"_We were walking in the park minding our own business and this germy looking older woman came up to us and was all over the pram, I thought she was going to kidnap her and we were going to have to tackle her" he said directing that statement to Peyton "Anyway she was breathing all over Sawy. So I kindly…" he said before getting cut off _

"_Kindly?"_ She said as _the camera turned around to his wife, her then light brown curls flew around in the light wind "It was the equivalent of an FBI or private security for the president telling you to move on, I was a little bit scared" she said with a smile._

Lucas was drawn out of video land by his ringing mobile, he picked it up and read caller id 'spunky trunks' she had changed her name in his phone to that the other week, he paused the video, composed himself to sound as though he had been writing his book this whole time, he then picked it up and smiled "Hey Gorgeous"

"How is the book going daddy?" she asked and he instantly felt himself smile

"Yeah great" he said, she didn't respond and he knew that she was on to him "I have written a few sentences, I am on the way"

"Luke"

"I miss my girls too much to be able to concentrate"

_This chapter is finished this story not so much!_


	7. Chapter 7

**Nothings bigger than love- chapter seven **

Peyton was awoken by the ringing of the phone, she was startled and didn't really understand what had woken her up, she didn't open her eyes, she knew that the second that she opened her eyes and was exposed to even the slightest bit of light that she would be awake for hours, she heard her husband mumble next to her and realised that he was woken too meaning that she wasn't imagining anything. "Is it Sawyer?" Peyton asked opening only one eye to check the time before shutting them both again as Lucas practically incoherently mumbled "no". They soon came to the conclusion together that what had woken them up was the phone.

"Who calls someone at four forty in the morning?" Lucas asked with a pouting and tired tone, her husband's remark made her come to a sudden realisation, and jumping out of bed "Who is it?" he asked after her

"Brooke" Peyton said as she bolted up the hall to the kitchen and picked up the phone all panicked and flustered "Brooke what's wrong?"

"How did you know it was me P. Sawyer?" a tired and emotional voice said into the receiver

"Because when we were little and we were sad and your mum would come and pick you up from my house or my mum and dad picked me up from yours, we would tell each other that it was a best friends duty to always make the other happy and that meant that if we were feeling sad we just had to call each other, remember? On our very sophisticated walkie talkies, no matter the time, even if it was…"

"Four forty six in the morning" she smiled instantly reminded of those moments in her life and realising how late it actually was.

"So what's up buttercup? Because it is four forty seven in the morning and it is my duty to cheer you up" she said feeling herself get cheerier just talking to her friend, even if it was a ridiculous time in the morning, she thought that maybe they should have made it more of a convenient time but that wasn't the point.

"I can't have babies" she said sobbing into the receiver, Peyton assumed so that Julian couldn't hear her

"Oh B. Davis" Peyton said, a tear running down her cheek as she slid down into the couch, crossing her legs and getting herself into a 'ready to listen' frame of mind, the second she heard her best friend begin to sob she had to fight the urge to throw on her beanie and ugboots and run out of the house and go straight to the airport just to fly back to Tree Hill and provide a shoulder to cry on for her friend, but she knew that she couldn't and that Brooke wouldn't expect her to, the best thing she could do right now was sit and listen as long as Brooke needed her to.

The world continued around her for hours as she sat teary eyed listening to her best friends intense pain, since they moved back to Tree Hill together that had been Brooke's one and only extensive dream, to become a mother. At five thirty her husband came to see where she had gotten to, the last thing he remembered before going back to sleep was Peyton running up the hallway and when he woke again she still wasn't back. Lucas sat down on the coffee table across from her; he simply and caringly leaned forward and wiped a tear from her face before sitting with her for at least half an hour just sitting holding her hand. At six Lucas stood up and told Peyton via miming that he was going to take a shower, if it hadn't been such a heart wrenching conversation and moment in time she would have laughed at how ridiculous he looked even though she knew that he was trying to be as caring as he possibly could to her, Sawyer walked into the living room moments after her father had left, she rubbed her sleepy eyes, they had gotten Sawyer her first bed recently and she had taken to getting herself out of bed in the mornings. As Sawyer saw her mum this broad smile grew upon her face and she jumped up on the opposite end of the couch, Peyton smiled back at her and put a finger to her own mouth indicating that the little girl be quite, while Brooke poured her heart out and Sawyer snuggled up against her mother, falling asleep before her shirtless father re-entered the room and lifted her up in an attempt to put her back into bed.

"I have to go now Julian is awake and I'm sure that you have a massive day ahead of you! I wish I could have a big P. Sawyer hug" just Brooke's words made Peyton's heart hurt and feel so incredibly guilty for not being in Tree Hill just for Brooke's own moral support, her eyes lit up as she thought of a solution to her problem

"Why don't you have one?" she asked

"What?" Brooke asked confused, not sure if the early morning had affected her hearing

"You said that you needed a break from it all, so just for a day or so come stay with me, we'll just spend some time together, talk!" she said the last word with such enthusiasm "Because B. Davis I miss you like crazy"

"I don't know…" she asked with clear reluctance in her voice, but Peyton was determined to do her best to convince her.

"Julian's going away isn't he? For that work thing" she asked remaining persistent in her goal

"Yeah" she wasn't exactly budging or jumping at the idea.

"Then catch a flight sweetie, I'll have ice-cream!" she thought that would be the selling point.

X-x-x-x-x-x

Peyton stood in front of the comet sipping her coffee, probably her third one of the day, her early morning wake up had proven to be exhausting. She had sent Lucas out on a father/daughter day in the hopes of tiring the little girl out and so she got some alone time with her best friend. Peyton with her sunglasses on looked up to the sky watching as an airplane came down and as it disappeared behind the small airport that sat about an hour out of where they were living. Her gaze drifted back to what was right in front of her, as she looked out she caught the gaze of the gorgeous woman standing at the crossing across the road from where Peyton stood. They smiled at each other as she walked out, Brooke threw her bag on the ground and they hugged incredibly tightly neither of them willing to let go. Last time they had seen each other in the flesh was on Sawyer's first birthday and just the month previously Sawyer had turned three, it was well and truly a hug that they both had looked forward to.

X-x-x-x-x-x

On the drive back to their house Peyton decided to stop and take Brooke for a walk on a beach about half an hour into the journey back to their isolated beach house, they simply just walked across the beach not talking just walking in this comfortable silence, as though presence alone was company enough.

"So how is the ice-queen?" Peyton said breaking the silence, Brooke turned to her and beyond her sunglasses Peyton could see the hint of a smile and took a breath of relief, since they had become friends so many years ago the job of buffing Brooke back up after a conversation with her mother was assigned to Peyton, and she dreaded the thought that Brooke's confidence was taking a battering and that she was doing nothing about it.

"She has actually been fantastic about this whole thing; she has got me seeing all these specialists"

"Go Victoria" Peyton said putting an enthusiastic fist in the air.

"So how is your little family?" Brooke asked continuing to look at Peyton as she looked ahead of them

"Fine" she kept it short and sweet, she really didn't think Brooke wanted to hear about her family when so much was going on in her own life; she just wanted to be there for Brooke

"Peyton, I love you but you don't have to worry about me breaking down over your happiness because you've been through so much and you deserve nothing but happiness." She said taking hold of Peyton's hand "As a matter of fact I want to see my god daughter" she said with a smile

"Come on then" Peyton said before turning Brooke around so they could both head back to the car.

X-x-x-x-x-x

"AUNT BROOKEY" the little curly blonde girl said running towards the woman with her arms wide open as her puffed out father walked behind; Brooke elevated the little girl up and hugged her as tight as she could, the little girl eventually squirmed out of Brooke's arms and ran back into the playground but this time her mother chased after her after putting a supportive hand on Brooke's back. Lucas walked over to Brooke with his usual Lucas Scott smile and wrapped his arms right around her to engulf her in his own embrace; he then kissed the top of her head.

"How you doing?" he asked in the most sincere and lovely tone

"I'm okay" she said as he looked down on her with his 'are you sure' eyes, he was like the groups therapist, if you ever had a problem you just went and knocked on Lucas' door and if you didn't he would find you and attempt to talk out your problems with you anyway. "I promise" she said as he put a hand over her shoulder, they both walked forwards to the edge of the playground and watched as Peyton ran around manically with the laughing little girl.

X-x-x-x-x-x

Peyton and Brooke lay in the bed that Peyton shared with Lucas, continuing to talk. It was a wonder that they had so much to talk about or that their jaws were still working but they hadn't seen each other in two years and for some reason every memory of the last two years that they had managed to miss in the last two years was flooding out of them, they even repeated stuff that they knew had to mentioned in some phone or Skype call but it didn't matter they were just loving being in each other's company, and for a moment they had forgotten what event had got them to this very social place and that made it nicer. They lay top to toe, Lucas came in after putting Sawyer to bed, and he placed the baby monitor on the nightstand and threw himself down on the torsos of both the women on his bed, which resulted in laughs from both of them. Before Lucas could even start talking the clear voice over the baby monitor bellow "Mama", Peyton stood up and vowed to be back momentarily, Lucas took her spot on the bed. They knew Peyton made it to Sawyer's room when they heard her voice over the baby monitor

"Quick turn it off before she starts singing" Brooke said as Lucas quickly jumped up and turned it off

"Hey Brooke" he said settling back down into the position that moments before he had taken

"Yeah" she said looking up at the roof

"I have no doubt that you are going to become a mum, and you are going to rock at it whether the kid if biologically yours or not, It is going to be the luckiest kid because it gets you for a mother and I know you so I know that you are going to absolutely dote on that kid"

"Thanks Luke" she said, tilting her head so that she could sort of see him, her eyes welled up "You know you aren't doing a horrible job on that gorgeous daughter of yours"

"I'm sure Julian won't be too bad" he said as a smile filled his face he looked up at her and a smile filled hers also.

"She is out" Peyton said walking back in; she looked down at the baby monitor "Why is that thing off?"

"We turned it off so that we didn't have to hear you sing" he said as she hit him and then shoved him so that he rolled off

"Did Lucas have his there are other ways to have children talk?" she said sitting down next to Brooke on the bed with her legs crossed

"Yeah he did and it was lovely" she said moving to a sitting position herself and Lucas got up off the floor and sat down on the end

"I taught it to him" she said as Brooke looked at her confused "We want another baby"

"Is that why we are in the bedroom?" she asked with a smile "I'm sorry but I can't have your baby, Please tell me you aren't going to try and get pregnant again"

"No I'm not, we are looking into surrogates" Peyton said with a smile that she sent over to Lucas who was doing the same thing "We haven't told anyone yet, because we haven't properly looked into it and we wouldn't do it for a couple more years now but we thought that you might like to know" she said, feeling awkward for even mentioning it

"That is an absolutely fantastic idea, Spread those genes around" she said with a smile as she brought Peyton in for a hug and then pulled her backwards so they were both lying down. Peyton and Lucas had decided that it couldn't hurt to tell Brooke what they had planned, they didn't want to rub the idea of more children when she had none in her face but Peyton knew that Brooke would make a fantastic mother and knew that the whole subject of surrogacy could be quite intimidating as it was for her, they weren't going to push it on her, they were just showing her an option, Brooke had to come to her own decision based upon what was right for her.

X-x-x-x-x-x

It was four forty six when Peyton woke up, she was lying between Brooke and Lucas on their queen size bed, literally having to sit up and press down on Lucas to see the illumines numbers on the alarm clock that sat next to their bed, she saw the numbers and smiled before setting herself back down and shutting her eyes.

"You did a pretty good job of cheering me up P. Sawyer"

"So did you B. Baker" she said before opening her eyes as Brooke turned to her with this look on her face "Yeah it doesn't work, I was just trying it out! You'll always be my B. Davis"

"Right back at you P. Sawyer"

_This chapter is finished but this story isn't quite there yet!_


	8. Chapter 8

**Nothings bigger than love – chapter eight**

Peyton sat on the floor of the spare bedroom that had been converted into the nursery of their soon to be born son, they hadn't originally wanted to find out the sex because they didn't mind what they got they would be happy with either but at a last minute scan an intern at the local hospital announced the gender to them accidently, so now the nursery was filled to the brim with the colour Blue. She was going through and folding up what was left of Sawyer's baby clothes to see if any of it was gender specific and could be used on the new baby. She held out a very pink baby blanket before lowering it to fold and finding her husband standing in the doorway looking on at her with a loving smirk on his face.

"Alexis is all settled in" Lucas said referring to their surrogate who for the last lap of this pregnancy was staying with them so that neither of them missed any of the action, She was sleeping in their bed though because the news of their new delivery had meant that their once spare bedroom was going to be occupied and not even with a decent sized bed.

"Can you believe that in less than a week we are going to have a little baby boy occupying this bedroom?" she said a smile beaming from her face

"Pretty exciting huh?" he said in his usual tone as he walked over, bent down and took up a place on the floor right next to her.

"Pretty exciting? Hmm I would say" she said as she dropped what she was folding and sat to face her husband on his lap, she wrapped her legs around him "it is incredibly exciting"

"When did Haley say she was going to get here?" he asked her, Haley had spare of the moment decided that she was going to come up and be there with them when the little Scott baby was welcomed into the world, they were all pretty pumped for it especially Karen who hadn't seen her in a very long time and was of course docked at a nearby pier for the birth of her second grandbaby.

"I'm not sure" she said as she leant behind him and passed him the telephone, she watched intently as he dialled

"Hales its Lucas" he said with a smile

"Thanks to a wonderful thing called caller id I knew that, dorkus" she said with a chuckle

"We" he added so that he could ask her what he had called her to ask

"Hey Foxy" Peyton yelled from where she sat

"Hey Peyt."

"We were wondering when you were showing up for the arrival of our baby boy?" he said looking on at his wife who was clearly pumped for everything that was going to be happening this week.

"It's a boy? I'm going to be an uncle" she said with such joy and triumph as Lucas laughed

"Yeah, So when are you arriving?"

"Oh crap Luke I have to tell you something" she said and he knew that she was biting down on her thumb

"What?" he asked as Peyton scrambled off him to go and get their daughter from whatever mischief she had gotten herself into

"Lyds is terrible two-ing it and the twins aren't sleeping through the night and while I really and I mean really want to be first to meet my little gorgeous nephew and see Karen, I can't leave Nathan with them all. I am absolutely kicking myself; I was so looking forward to it"

"Hales, its fine. I totally understand" he said knowing full well that his disappointment wasn't half as horrible as the disappointment that his best friend was feeling at this very moment.

"But don't think I am leaving you empty handed I have sent someone in my place, someone I trust immensely or else they wouldn't have even been an option, sent to take as many pictures as humanly possible, I think he might even be better than me" she said with a smirk

"Who?" he asked as the doorbell went off in the distance, he smiled as Haley told him who she had sent in her place, Lucas got up and went to the front door and there he was standing in all his glory in the doorway with Peyton and Sawyer. Lucas smiled "Mouth my man, how are you doing?"

X-x-x-x-x-x

"Lucas" she whispered in the dark over to her husband, they were sleeping on the foldout couch in the living room, words could not describe how thankful they were that Karen, Andy and Lily hadn't wanted to stay at their house "Lucas are you awake?" she whispered again this time throwing a hand over to just nudge him

"Peyton" he whispered back harshly "Go to sleep"

"Geez you are so grumpy in the mornings "

"Yes Peyton I am" he said sitting up to face her "Especially when it is two in the morning" he said before lying back down

"Luke" she whispered again

"What?" he said again not in a happy tone

"I'm too excited to sleep" she said looking over to him, his shoulders relaxed and she heard the severe change in his tone

"Please just try Peyton" with that he fell silent again, she knew he wasn't asleep again but she also knew that she faced death if she attempted to wake him up again. She turned back onto the side the faced the hallway when she saw a silhouette appear out of practically nowhere, she ruled out Sawyer because it was too tall then Alexis by the way it walked

"Mouth, what are you doing?" she said putting an elbow beneath her so that she could talk to him

"My bed broke" he said standing in the doorway, they had set up the mattress that they had attempted to fixed after Lucas and Peyton popped it on the eve of Sawyer's first birthday, in the new babies nursery for Mouth, what could they say they didn't have visitors often. Peyton broke out in hysterical laughter and Lucas who must have just dosed off before the fiasco woke up

"What happened?" he asked not sure of what was going on around him

"The air mattress popped underneath Mouth" she said between uncontrollable loud laughs, while Lucas tried he failed to keep the façade that was the tough guy attitude that he thought he needed to make Peyton go to sleep, he let out a mammoth laugh, they both rolled around in laughter for a minute before Peyton squished over closer to Lucas and insisted that Mouth take up some of the sofa bed.

X-x-x-x-x-x

First thing the next morning the three sofa bed buddies were woken up by an incredibly confused Sawyer. Karen, Andy and Lily came over just after breakfast, Lucas soon took them and Sawyer out sight-seeing for the day, to give Alexis some quite time, Peyton who hadn't actually gone to sleep when Mouth hopped into their bed at two in the morning for a whole other hour and Mouth stayed behind to keep Alexis company. They didn't want to overcrowd her but at the same time they didn't want to abandon her.

"Oh Wow" Alexis said as she lay down on the couch with her big stomach, she was surrounded by Peyton who sat on the floor in front of her and Mouth who sat on the arm chair next to her, they were watching soap operas together to fill in some time, well that is what Peyton had said but they both were pretty sure she had only said that to hide the fact that she loved to watch them.

"Yeah she is a bitch" Peyton said not taking her attention away from the television screen, she referred to the actress on screen

"No, This baby of yours has strong legs" Alexis said with a laugh as both Mouth and Peyton jumped across the room to put hands on her rather large pregnant stomach, sometimes Peyton found herself wishing that she was the pregnant one, that this little baby, their little baby was growing inside of her, but she knew that this was the best option for all of them and she also knew that no matter what she was going to love this baby with the whole of her heart and it didn't matter if it came out of her or if it came out of the lovely woman who sat beside her. Mouth's eyes lit up as he felt the baby kick, Peyton smiled as Alexis began to squirm, they took their hands off of her as she went to stand up with the help of Mouth. "Now excuse me while I empty my bladder for the hundredth time today" she said as she waddled off and Peyton and Mouth took up their original positions.

"I never thought of you as a soap opera girl" Mouth said as Peyton turned around and smiled at him

"Neither did I, just one day on the boat after we left Tree Hill it was on the television and I sat down and watched it, haven't stopped since, I think it is because they remind me of when I was living with Brooke, she used to force me to watch them all the time and when she didn't I would come home or go into Clothes over Bro's and find her watching them" she said with a slight smile on her face "I'm really glad that you are here Mouth"

"I'm really glad I am here Peyton that I get to be involved" he said with sort of an embarrassed smile when he realised what he was saying to her. They were interrupted by Alexis walking back into the room with these red tinges across her cheeks and this nervous smile on her lips.

"Uhmm I think me waters broke" she said as Peyton and Mouth both stood up and looked at her with matching shocked looks. They stood there for about a minute before the rushing began, Mouth was in charge of calling the hospital and letting them know that they were coming, Alexis was just to concentrate on remaining cool calm and collected and Peyton she was going to call Lucas.

Mouth had finished his job and turned to look at Alexis, who considering the circumstances was actually quite calm and collected, they both turned and looked up the hallway as they heard a bang, Mouth instructed for Alexis to stay where she was while he went to check on Peyton, he walked up the hallway and found Peyton sitting on the edge of their bed, looking at the floor as tears streamed down her cheeks. He crossed the room and sat down next to her.

"Peyton are you okay?" he asked in a calm tone, she turned to him

"Lucas isn't picking up his phone" she said wiping tears off her face

"That's okay, he will get the messages and come down to the hospital, and it is all going to be fine Peyton"

"No it's not" she said as he looked on at her "When Sawyer was born and I woke up from my coma I fell instantly in love with her and we just had this bond, what if I don't have that with this baby, what if I fell nothing? What if I am a horrible mother to him? What if I treat Sawyer differently than what I treat him?"  
>"Peyton" he said with a hand on the small of her back "When that baby comes into the world you are going to fall in love with him, you're going to be so happy and you never not ever could be a horrible mother, I have seen you with Sawyer, you are an amazing mum and you will remain an amazing mum when this baby is born, do you want to know how I know?" he said as she looked up into his eyes, just the look in her eyes let him know that she wanted him to tell her "Because you are Peyton Sawyer-Scott and I have known you since high school, I have seen with my own eyes how amazing you are, I have seen how caring and genuine you were with an old man that you didn't know anything about" she instantly knew who he was talking about and smiled<p>

"What am I doing? Crying when I am about to become a mum again" she said as he smiled back at her, she drew him in for a hug "Thanks Mouth"

He had left the room with a happy look on his face, telling Peyton that they would be waiting for her when she had got herself collected and then shut the door as he headed up the hallway, and for the second time he approached a woman who was looking down at the ground with tears streaming, he quickly ran over and knelt down next to her "Alexis what's wrong?" he said not sure if it was something to do with the baby

"I can't do this" she said not even looking up at him, he put a hand on hers and she looked up at him, her blue eyes glistening from tears

"Yeah you can" he said with his gorgeously cheeky smile

"How am I supposed to give birth to this baby and then hand it over, I know that it is not mine but I have been growing it for nine months now, am I supposed to just forget that"

Mouth looked at her and delivered his second piece of wisdom for the day "Nah you're not supposed to just forget that, you are supposed to remember that you delivered a fantastic couple a miracle, a miracle that wouldn't exist without you, and when you hand over that baby and you see the look in their eyes, that look of pure bliss and love you will find the courage and the strength to let him go because you will know that he is not yours that this little soul is the missing piece in this little family" he hoped that the speech he had given her wasn't viewed as harsh, and he knew that it wasn't when she smiled at him.

"I'm doing a good thing aren't I?" she said as though it was only just hitting her now, before he could answer her a look of wholesome pain came across her face and while Mouth had never been present for a birth before, Television had told him that this was in fact a contraction

"You are doing an absolutely astonishingly wonderful thing" he said as her hand wrapped around his and squeezed tightly, Mouth was so focused on the pain on Alexis' face that he didn't notice Peyton coming around the corner and putting an arm on the small of her back in support, that when he looked up again and saw her standing above him he jumped and Peyton sort of laughed between concern for her in labour surrogate.

"Mouth's pretty good at the comforting thing isn't he Alexis" she said helping Alexis off the couch after her contraction to get her into the car and drive her to the hospital.

X-x-x-x-x-x

"This is Lucas, Leave a message at…."Sawyer, Sawyer baby smile for mamma" Peyt I'm trying to do this phone message thing "Sorry" Lucas chuckles "Where was I?, oh leave a message at the beep"

"Luke it's me, I'm just outside now. Mouth is in there with her! Hurry up okay. This thing is about to start and I have to turn my phone off now" she said hanging up the phone and leaned against the hospital wall before redialling "We're having a baby! Love you baby daddy" now Peyton hung up the phone with a smile on her face walking into the room, Alexis lay in the bed obviously as Mouth stood next to her holding her hand, Peyton presumed that another contraction had hit while she was out of the room trying to get into contact with Lucas who was going to miss it all if he didn't hurry up, Their doctor stood in front of the bed with the chart in her hand, scribbling something down in her notes. Peyton stood stuck to the wall just taking it all in; Mouth noticed her first and grinned

"Did you get onto Luke?" he said as everyone else's attention was drawn to where Peyton was standing.

"Nope" she said as though she was going to burst into tears at any minute now, she wanted Lucas to be there to hold her hand and rub their noses together before kissing her forehead, like he always did when she was scared, and right now she was scared to death, this moment signified the changing of their lives as they knew them. She just wanted him right there so they could embrace it together.

"He'll be here Peyton" he said dragging her out of her little world and trying to comfort her at the same time.

"Well he better get here soon" the doctor said as she put down the chart "This baby is nearly ready to be brought into this world" now she was smiling, as Peyton walked further into the room and the doctor turned to Alexis and then to Peyton "She is doing incredibly well, I will be back in a minute to check on you all" she said as she walked out of the suite.

Peyton walked over to the other side of the bed and took hold of Alexis other hand, and by the look on Alexis' face and the tightening of grip Peyton and Mouth knew that it was on again, the doctor wasn't wrong, this baby was coming and he was coming fast. Mouth went to run out and grab the doctor but stopped as he opened the door, a massive grin coming across his face as he looked back at Peyton before Lucas Scott ran into the room.

"I hear we are about to have this baby" he said all puffed out but with an excited and glad look on his face as the doctor walked into the room.

X-x-x-x-x-x

Three hours after her labour began she gave birth to a baby Scott, a bouncing, chubby cheeked, black haired little Scott, He lay in his mother's arms wrapped in a blue blanket with a blue beanie placed upon his delicate little head as his four year old sister Sawyer, with her curly hair tied up in a bun sat on the chair next to them on her knees, leaning on her mother and closely inspecting her baby brother. Lucas and Mouth who both looked exhausted sat next to the woman who deserved to look exhausted as they all looked on at the gorgeous boy. Mouth offered to take Sawyer home as Karen, Andy and Lily had left to give the family some time together, He stood up as Lucas went over to his little family and Alexis called Mouth over to her. She pulled his collar so his face was down near hers and kissed him on the cheek "Thank you Mouth, and by the way what you said before was totally true" she said as he smiled and walked over to collect the little girl, who had a cheeky smile on her face and Mouth knew he was in for a long night of mischief, Peyton passed the baby boy over to Lucas and stood up draping her arms around Mouth and briefly swaying from one foot to the other "Mouth McFadden you are my life saver" she whispered into his ear and he smiled

"Was I right?" he asked her with this smirk on his face knowing full well what the answer was going to be

"You were totally right" she said before kissing him on the cheek and then leaning down to her little girl and kissing her "You be nice to mummy's mouth please" she said as her little girl put her hands behind her back and smiled widely swaying backwards and forwards

"I will mama" she said and Peyton could tell from the look on her face that Mouth was in for some hyperactivity on her daughter's part. She took Mouth's hand and practically dragged him out of the room. Peyton then sat down and looked at the little boy in her husband's arms practically taking up the same position that Sawyer had.

"Everyone is having a bit of the McFadden Love" Lucas said without looking up from his little black haired baby, all the adults in the room smirked and then sat in silence for a moment.

"So what are you going to name the little darling?" Alexis asked and Peyton turned away from her boys to face her.

"I think we should name him after Mouth" Peyton said as Lucas looked up at her, with this look on his face

"You want to name our baby Mouth Scott?" he asked sort of shocked

"That's not his real name" Peyton pointed out to her husband who snickered next to in the chair, he concentrated on not moving too much as he laughed in the hopes of not waking up the sweet looking boy

"Marvin then? Like the Martian?" he said and now Peyton was laughing, the name suited Mouth but they never actually used his first name and the way Lucas said it made her laugh.

"What is his middle name then?" she asked realising that neither of the names he had suggested really suited their baby boy

"Leonardo" he said looking at his wife and then back down at the baby in his arms.

Peyton thought for a moment, looking off into the distance and then looked back at the baby with a smile on her face as Lucas and Alexis looked quizzically at her "Leonardo Keith Scott"

Lucas smiled back in approval but she didn't see it she was looking so intently at the boy whose name just suited him perfectly "I love it Peyt"

"Leo for short" she said as she placed a hand on the stomach of Baby Leo Keith Scott.

X-x-x-x-x-x

"You there?" Lucas said as he concentrated on his laptop screen.

"We're all here" Haley yelled as their extended tree hill family surrounded

"You don't have to yell" Nathan said turning to his wife

"Whoops sorry" she said with a smile

"Is that Karen?" Brooke asked indicating to the black haired woman folding clothes in the background. She waved and then yelled "My grandson is absolutely gorgeous"

"Okay let's do this" Lucas said picking up his laptop walking past Andy and Lily who waved as they sat on the couch. It had been four days since little Leo was born; they had decided that they would introduce their baby to them via an internet connection. Lucas held the laptop outwards to him as he walked into his sons nursery. Peyton sat in the rocking chair with her curly blonde haired four year old sitting next to her on the chair while Peyton nursed her baby boy.

"Oh Peyton he is gorgeous" Haley cooed

"Good going big brother"

"Goldilocks look at those chubby cheeks" Brooke said moving closer to the screen like maybe the closer she got the closer she was to the brand new baby.

"We would like to introduce you to Leonardo Keith Scott" Lucas beamed from behind the laptop

_This chapter is finished but alas the story is not!_


	9. Chapter 9

**Nothings Bigger than love – chapter nine**

Peyton had woken up just before Leo usually woke up every morning and turned off the baby monitor, she thought that it was important for Lucas to get some extra sleep, she had walked out of Leo's nursery with him under her arm and like a super hero whisked Sawyer from the doorway of her parents' bedroom before Sawyer had the chance to wake up her dad. Lucas had spent the whole night tossing and turning and she knew where his thoughts were, back at a specific moment wishing that he could somehow change the circumstances that he found himself in that day a lifetime ago. When he did finally emerge from the bedroom he walked out to his family in the living area of their small beach front property, Peyton sat in front of the high chair feeding Leo while his eldest little free spirited daughter danced to whatever cartoon was on the television, at an incredibly loud volume, maybe his irritable state made it sound louder than it actually was but never the less her requested as he walked through the area that his daughter turn it down. Peyton looked at him with sorrow in her eyes, she knew what day it was and she thought that the best way to get through it would be to just coexist together; from experience she knew that this was the best option, she would try to talk to him but when the kids weren't there to distract them. Lucas walked over to his concerned wife and kissed the top of her head before again telling Sawyer over his shoulder to turn it all down; he then made it to his son whose hands he kissed "Turn it down Sawyer"

"Sawyer honey" Peyton said trying to get to her daughter who was so enchanted by the music that she couldn't hear them, Sawyer absolutely adored her father and mother for that fact and wouldn't ever ignore their requests. Lucas seemed to have let it go and she watched as he walked towards the fridge, getting his regular cup of orange juice like every other morning, if anyone who didn't know the significance saw this morning they would assume that nothing was wrong.

"TURN THAT DAMN THING DOWN NOW SAWYER" Lucas yelled before throwing his glass of orange juice in the sink and watching as it broke into a thousand different pieces in front of him, he remained oblivious to the fact that all three sets of eyes were firmly placed on him. He steadied himself with one hand on either side of the sink as Sawyer quickly scurried to turn down the television. Peyton couldn't take it anymore, she knew that he was hurting that he needed some time but these kids were not going to be put through this, and she also didn't want this to make an impact on how Sawyer viewed her father, because she was a complete and total daddy's girl and that look on her face in that very instant was bad enough, Peyton scooped Leo out of his highchair and walked over to the little girl who is still yet to take her eyes off her father "Come on Blondie help me dress your brother" she said with a smile of reassurance on her face as she took Sawyer's hand and they walked up the hallway.

X-x-x-x-x-x

Sawyer stood on the edge of the changing table with her mother standing behind her while she removed her little brothers singlet "Why is daddy so sad today mama?" Sawyer asked with this innocence that was like a stab in the gut for Peyton.

"You know how we talk about your grandpa Keith?"

"Ya-ha" the little curly haired girl said as she watched over her brother who sat on the changing table with a big grin on his face, she loved how obliviously happy he was, she wished she could be that small and without a worry in the world.

"Well your daddy misses him very much darling, especially today" she said as she rested her chin on the bouncy curls that lay upon the four year olds head.

"I'm going to spend today with mum" he said as Peyton jumped, she wondered how long he had been standing there in the doorway, she looked down at her daughter willing her to not ask him to take her with him but also willing for her to ask so there was some sort of recognition of the normal family dynamic but Sawyer stood very still against her mother's arms, still stand off-ish after her dad yelled at her.

"Okay" Peyton said with a supportive smile as he walks away from her and their little family.

X-x-x-x-x-x

Peyton sat on the couch with a cup of tea in her hands, she wanted no distraction today so she had turned off her mobile knowing that the majority of people that she loved were in that school on that horrible day and that they would be mourning that experience in their own ways today and those who weren't in the school were wise enough to know that today wasn't the day to call and have a chat to Peyton or Lucas. She was so thankful that Sawyer and Leo were so comfortable with each other and were distracting each other so that she could just sit with her own thoughts for at least a moment, to think back to that day where she nearly died on the library floor. She tried to shake away that memory, like she always did on the anniversary of the school shooting, she would hold it all together for her kids and then when they went to bed she would finally allow herself to think of all that happened that day and she would wind up sobbing herself to sleep. She came back to reality to watch Sawyer hand in hand with her brother walking him around the room as he looked on at her with a big smile. The knock on the front door worried her and so she quickly put her cup of tea on a high cabinet so that Leo couldn't reach it and headed towards the front door "Sawyer, be careful with your brother please" she said as she opened the door with the most horrendous thoughts going through her head, she breathed a sigh of relief when she saw who was standing in her doorway.

"Hope you don't mind us coming around, we thought we might leave Lucas and Karen to it today" said Andy as Lily smiled and walked past her to the kids in the living room

"Come in" Peyton said with a faint smile as Andy hugged her tightly and came into the house.

X-x-x-x-x-x

Karen lay motionless on the queen size bed in the master bedroom of the boat with tears running down her cheeks, her eyes were already puffy from tears that she had previously shed already today. Lucas walked into the room with two cups of tea and she sits up, smiling weakly as she grasps the mug in both her hands.

X-x-x-x-x-x

They had decided that there was no point being crowded in the small house all day and made a decision to take the kids to the beach for some fresh air and some fun, they stood near the growing tide watching as Sawyer ran manically through the water while Leo sat at their feet. "Where is Lily?" Peyton said as they both frantically started looking around, their gazes stopped at the lone figure sitting on the beach with her arms wrapped around her knees, they looked at each other with this look that meant that they both knew what was going on and it was a sad look so Peyton offered to go and talk to the teenager who was probably so confused by this day.

"Hey kiddo" She said as she sat down next to her

"Hey"

"What's up?" Peyton asking, knowing full well what was up but wanting Lily to feel as though she could talk to her about this sort of stuff.

"I don't know what to do on this day, mum and Luke are so distraught and upset, and so am I but in completely different ways. Today for them signifies the day that they lost someone so incredibly dear to them" she said looking up at Peyton as though she wanted her response, Peyton looks at her completely stumped on what she can say to her to somehow help her today so she rolled up her pant leg and runs a finger down her scar that she got on this day

"Today for me signifies how lucky I am to be here on this planet right now but I don't know how to act or what to do today either because on one hand I am so incredibly gratefully that I am standing here right this very second but on the other hand today is the day that we lost Keith Scott and that is devastating and heartbreaking because we all loved Keith" they had always made an effort to shield Lily from all of the bad stuff in life because of this combined feeling of need to protect her from it, like she didn't need any more heartbreak in her life especially at her age but they never hesitated in confiding or talking honestly to this very wise young woman.

"What was he like?" lily constantly asked this question but none of them minded, it was nice to go back and think of all the memories they had shared with Keith.

"He was lovely, caring and funny" Peyton said fondly remembering back

"It hurts knowing that I seem to be the only one who doesn't know the amazing ways of Keith Allan Scott. Every day I live with the fact that I can never know my father" she considered Andy as her father because he was the only one that she had ever had but somehow knowing this on a day like today made it worse and she threw herself into Peyton's arms as she burst into tears, Peyton didn't refuse this instead she held onto her tightly and kissed the top of her head.

X-x-x-x-x-x

Peyton sat on their bed in her pyjama shorts stroking the scar on her leg, she heard the front door open and walks to the hallway to check on the man that she knows it is, she sees him walking into their daughter's bedroom, so she snuck up the hallway and sat down next to the door listening in for the conversation she knew that he was about to have.

"Hey baby girl" he said as he leaned down next to his daughter's bed with a hand on her arm, she stirs and turns to him with her big green eyes "Scoot over" he said as she did as he instructed and Lucas lay down next to her.

"Are you still sad daddy?" she asked as she looked up at him

"Yeah bubba I am"

"Mama said that your sad spec-specially" she attempted to use the same words that her mother had used that morning to describe It all "Specially today" Peyton weakly smiled as she pressed her head against the wall.

"I'm sorry for yelling at you this morning girly, I shouldn't have"

"That's okay daddy you were sad about pa Keith"

"No darling it is not alright, I shouldn't have lost my temper with you, and I love you so much my little Sawy-berry" he said looking down at her with a smile

"Love you too daddy" she said matching it

"Your Pa Keith would have adored you" he said before kissing her on the head, Peyton felt tears in her eyes, she was always an emotional wreck on this day and for good reason. Peyton could hear him saying goodnight, he walked out of the bedroom looking down at her and without question, thought or judgement he sat down next to her, holding his hand out which she quickly filled with her own hand as he kissed it.

"I've been thinking" he said looking down to her as she looked up "life is short, Keith is an example of that, Peyton we are surrounded by so much greatness, look around we are so lucky. I think we should have another baby"

"What?"

"I called Alexis and she is thinking about it" he said looking at his shocked wife "That is only if you want to"

"Yes" she said as her shocked look turned into a massive grin

"Are you…"

"YES" she said hoisting herself up and kissing him on the lips.

X-x-x-x-x-x

The little girl walked into her parents room with her wild curls sprawled across her back, they were laying both facing the door, her father's arms wrapped around her mum. Sawyer grabbed a pillow that had fell off their bed during the night and began swinging it at her father and mother who eventually woke up to the commotion, Peyton smiled at her before quickly getting out of the bed, she watched as Sawyer continued to attack her dad with the pillow "That's it I'm going to get you little monster" he said as Sawyer giggled uncontrollably as Peyton smiled widely, that laugh could make her melt. Lucas scooped her out of the air and pulled her down to the mattress where he began to tickle her.

"Be careful with her" she said as she left the room to go and get Leo who had recently stirred across the baby monitor. She returned with the not so awake boy in her arms to find Lucas standing in the corner on his mobile phone and Sawyer jumping on the bed "Who is daddy talking to?" Peyton asked as her daughter shrugged her shoulders, Peyton arched her eyebrows before snuggling back into bed with Leo nuzzled onto her chest when Lucas got off the phone he had this wicked smile on his face, Sawyer jumped from the bed into his arms and he hugged her for a moment "Who was that?" Peyton asked looking from her husband down to the baby boy in her arms.

"That was Alexis" he said as Peyton felt her heart stop "She thought about it and well SHE IS GOING TO GIVE US ANOTHER BABY, BABY" he yelled at the top of his lungs before jumping up on the bed with Sawyer in his arms and dropping her on the bed so that they could both jump around Peyton in the bed, Peyton looked up with a massive smile, knowing that her family was hopefully going to be getting bigger soon, and by what she had already she knew that it was going to be the most fantastic thing since sliced bread, she loved her family.

_This chapter is finished but the story isn't (3 chapters to go)_


	10. Chapter 10

Nothings Bigger than love – Chapter ten 

She woke to the sound of her mobile phone ringing on the bedside table, she was completely disoriented and threw her arm over the other side of the bed, she realised that she had hit her husband when he groaned and let out a yelp, after that she decided that it was probably best to open her eyes, she located the ringing and the brightness of the screen, she scrambled to get it before the person on the other end of the phone hang up, it was extremely late at night so she assumed that the phone call was important. "Hey gorgeous" she said into the receiver.

"Hales" she said and Haley could hear the exhaustion in her voice, Haley wasn't really surprised that she was tired as a matter of fact she was a mother of two of course she was tired but the tone she could hear over the phone sounded different it sounded broken

"Peyton what's wrong?" she said sitting up abruptly with Nathan soon following

"It's Alexis, She was in a car accident last night, it's pretty bad, they are going to have to watch her and if it gets any worse they are going to have to deliver the baby by caesarean"

"Oh Peyton" Haley said as she put a hand to her mouth "How is she doing with it?"

"I haven't seen her yet, Luke went up to sit with her now but she was on her way here when it happened and so she was rushed to a hospital about two hours away and I can't go up and be with her because the kids need me at home"

"Peyton what can I do?" she asked as she leaned forward, Nathan looked on her with an extremely worried look on his face

"I know this is a big ask and that you have four gorgeous kids that need your attention but Brooke isn't answering her phone and Karen is out at sea and I just can't get into contact with her and I was just wondering…."

"Yes" she said and Peyton briefly let out a laugh

"I haven't even asked you yet"

"Peyton I will be there in a heartbeat" she said before telling Peyton to stay strong and how much she loved her before hanging up the phone and getting out of bed.

"What's going on babe?" he said all tired yet gorgeous

"Peyton and Lucas need me"

X-x-x-x-x-x

Haley had explained it all to Nathan, called Brooke, packed a bag, kissed her kids goodbye and jumped in her minivan driving straight to Brooke's house, she stood out the front of her house with her bags and smiled, it was a cold night so she was all rugged up and ran to the car quickly. She kissed Haley's cheek and smiled "I know that it is under horrible circumstances but I'm really glad that we are road tripping Haley James Scott"

X-x-x-x-x-x

Peyton was pacing up and down the hallway, she was waiting for calls from Lucas, Karen, her dad and a whole other bunch of people but most of all she was waiting to go and check on Alexis and her baby. She had this paralysing fear inside of her and she was scared to death that everyone that she talked to seemed to be skimming over the fact that not only could they lose Alexis, who was a fantastic friend but they could also lose their baby, the baby they pined for, for such a long time and that was killing her. Peyton looked around the room and remembered that her kids were asleep and broke down onto the floor in hysterical tears. She bawled her eyes out in this raw pain, this raw incredible pain and all she wished for was her husband to walk through those doors that she sat in front of and like clockwork she felt arms around her and she turned to face the gorgeous woman that knew how to hold her when she was at her lowest, then she turned to the other side and found another person that she would be happy to have hold her until the tears dried up.

"Everything is going to be fine baby" Brooke said sitting on her knees wrapped around Peyton's collar as Haley sat next to her holding her hand and wiping the tears away with the free one "Now get your scrawny bum off the floor and go be with your husband and your baby cause we are here now and we are going to be the best babysitters in the world" Brooke said as Peyton and Haley smiled at her, Peyton brushed a hand over her damp eyes and nodded hugging Brooke then Peyton before hopping up and waking Sawyer.

X-x-x-x-x-x

Peyton was in her car when her husband finally called and as soon as she saw his name she breathed a sigh of relief before pulling over to the side of the road.

"I'm on my way" she practically yelled into the receiver

"Where are the kids?" he asked briefly being re directed from his own train of thought

"Haley and Brooke just arrived and swung into Baby sitter mode, so how is our Alexis doing?" she said with a smile on her face, she was just relieved that she could hear her husband's voice.

"Ah Peyton, it's not good. Alexis is getting worse and they have to get the baby out" Peyton felt like her heart was being ripped out, it took her awhile to get her words back

"Well okay I will be there in an hour" she said looking down at her watch

"Peyt they have to do it right now, they have to get the baby out or she might not make it, now the baby has a strong heartbeat and the doctors say she should be perfectly healthy"

"She? It's a little girl?" Peyton said with a quiver in her voice

"Yeah it is!" he said and she swore he sounded happy but soon his tone turned serious again "Peyton I've got to go, have to go have a baby"

"Hug Alexis for me, and Lucas Scott take care of our baby" she said as tears streamed down her cheeks.

X-x-x-x-x-x

Peyton sat with tears streaming down her face as she sat down next to Alexis' hospital she put one hand on the bed next to the woman who still hadn't woken up from the emergency caesarean, Peyton put her head in her other hand but looked up when she felt pressure on her right hand.

"Hey" Peyton said looking up at the woman with dried blood on her face and her raw scars from the car accident.

"I'm so sorry Peyton" she said struggling to get the words out

"Everything happens for a reason" she said putting her second hand on top of the hands already on the bed

"Where is the baby?" she asked putting a hand on her stomach and looking at Peyton with her big watery eyes

"You were really bad after the accident and you weren't getting any better so they had to deliver the baby to make sure that they could save you" Peyton said matching Alexis' watery eyes

"BBuut the baby wasn't ready yet" she said as tears streamed down her face

"You did nothing wrong, I'm just going to go get Lucas" she said kissing Alexis' hand and walking out into the hallway soon Lucas walked in with a slight smile on his lips and Alexis burst into tears as he came and sat down next to her.

"She is absolutely gorgeous" Alexis said as she broke into tears looking down at the bundle of pink blankets in Lucas' arms "What are you going to name her?"

"Hold you horses I haven't had a proper look at my baby girl yet" Peyton said referring to the fact that she had run into the hospital and straight to the nursery where Lucas held up their baby and told her that she was perfect before she ran up the hallway to be with Alexis when she finally woke up. Lucas handed the baby to Peyton and she looked down at the baby and cried before looking up at Lucas and smiling

"Ellie" they both said at the same time as they smiled widely from one to another

"Rebecca" Lucas added

"Ellie Rebecca Scott" Peyton concluded "You my darling are named after two of the women that I loved the most in the whole world" Peyton said down to the baby girl.

X-x-x-x-x-x

That night after the little baby was checked out by the doctors they were told that they could take her home with them but to go to the closest health care provider if they were worried about anything but little Ellie Scott was born perfect, so they dressed the newborn put her in a blanket and then put her in the baby carrier that would click in and convert into a car seat for the drive home, it was the only thing besides a pram that Peyton had managed to throw in on her way to the hospital, the only thing that they had prepared for the impending birth, They carried her to Alexis' room and she weakly smiled, she was well and truly exhausted.

"How is she?" she asked sitting up and adjusting the pillow behind her and Lucas placed the carrier on the bed and Alexis put a hand on the sleeping baby

"She is perfect, Look Alexis we are so grateful for everything you have done for us and given us and we love you for that, just one more thing"

"If you ask me to have another baby I will hurt you" Alexis said with a laugh

"God No" Peyton said also laughing "We just wanted to tell you that you can come and recuperate at our house, I mean I know that we will have kids running around everywhere but as long as you don't mind that we have a spare bed for you" Peyton said showing her a smile

"Didn't the doctors tell you?" Alexis asked as both Lucas and Peyton looked at her "They are transferring me to a hospital back where I live so that I can be with my family, I'm going first thing tomorrow morning"

"I'm going to miss you, I was looking forward to the last week of the pregnancy where we got to sit on the couch and watch soap operas" Peyton said walking up and putting her arms around her and hugging her as tightly as she could without worrying that she was hurting her.

"Me too" Alexis said as Lucas hugged her too, it was kind of emotional for all of them for practically the last three years they had been in constant contact and Alexis had brought so much and meant so much to them so it was no surprise that both Peyton and Alexis had tears in their eyes as they looked on at each other, Alexis took one last look at Ellie and smiled before looking back up at her parents "You have to send me photos all the time of those gorgeous kids" she said as Peyton nodded.

X-x-x-x-x-x

By the time they got home they were both exhausted, it wasn't that late but this whole day had been emotionally draining and knowing that Haley and Brooke were at home with the kids was a whole weight off their shoulders. Peyton pushed the pram up the driveway, they got to the deck and Lucas ran ahead to lift the back end up the step "Careful Luke" Peyton whispered across the pram to him, it was like the sound of her speaking alerted the house of their presence and soon the door was open and two heads were popped out the side with massive smiles, one belonged to the little girl with blonde curly hair referred to as her daughter and the other one belonged to a brunette with luscious waves who was referred to as her over excited best friend, Peyton smiled at the sight of them, she stopped the pram as they both walked outside, Brooke walked over as Sawyer ran and jumped into her mother's arms before they all looked into the sleeping babies bassinet. They both fell silent for a moment "Where is Haley?" Peyton asked looking around

"I'm here" she said with a simple smile on her face, in her arms lay a sleeping Leo slightly covered in a blanket with his little chubby face so innocent with his tiny little blue socks, blue singlet, grey tracksuit pants, beanie with horns on it and green striped jumper over the top. Lucas quickly walked over and scooped the sleeping boy out of his best friends arms as she looked into the bassinet

"She is amazing" Haley said looking at the gorgeous baby "You did good best friend" she said weaving her arm in Lucas' as he smiled

"Oh Wow" Brooke said wiping tears away from her eyes "She looks like Ellie" she said looking up at Peyton and smiling "What are you naming her?"

"Ellie Rebecca Scott" Peyton said with a mammoth grin as the girls looked on at her with this look of approval, just the name coming off her lips made her smile widely. They all headed in side and as Brooke and Haley stayed in the kitchen to give the little family some alone time they walked up the hallway to their bedroom "Should we get the bassinet out of the garage or should we just leave her in the pram tonight?" Peyton asked turning her head as she pushed the pram and held Sawyer on her hip as Lucas smiled and nodded and then opened the door with his spare hand.

"Ah I don't think we have to" he said as Peyton herself stepped into the room and smiled

"BROOKE BAKER AND HALEY JAMES SCOTT GET YOUR B-U-T-T-S UP HERE" they were there with cheeky grins on her face "What have you done?"

"Well we noticed that you weren't very prepared for that baby" Haley said as Peyton laughed at her

"So we went SHOPPING" Brooke said with this excited look on his face as they all looked on at the girls handy work, they had set up the bassinet and the mobile, the change table everything that they needed for the first couple of days till Peyton and Lucas could sort everything out and then of course a whole bunch of bags from baby clothes shops.

X-x-x-x-x-x

"I'm so in love" Peyton said as she lay next to her baby girl before looking to her right

"Yeah I think I am going to kidnap this one" Brooke said with a smile before turning to her right and smiling at Haley who had Sawyer on her back

"Little Ellie Scott" she said placing a kiss on the sleeping babies hand

"Come on Sawy its bed time" Lucas said walking into the room after putting Leo to bed, Sawyer had a leg on either side of her Aunt's back as she stood up in her adorable gold fish pyjamas that her Aunt Brooke had got her that day, she blew everyone kisses as her dad lifted her around the waste and carried her out in a way that made Sawyer laugh hysterically, Peyton looked lovingly up at her amazingly gorgeous daughter before looking down at her other and then back up at her girls.

"I never said how much It meant to me that you two left your incredibly busy lives at the drop of a hat just to be here for Luke and I" she said as her eyes began to well up "You guys mean so much to me and just knowing that you were here today with Sawy and Leo just lifted heaps of weight off our shoulders and it really just let us be with Alexis and Ellie today and all of this" she said indicating to all the baby stuff in the room " You didn't have to do it all"

"We wanted to, and we are so glad that you called and that we got to hang out with your amazing kids"

"Sawyer is in love with you two, couldn't get her to shut up about her cool Aunt Haley and Aunt Brooke" Lucas said walking into the room with a massive smile before heading over to the pile of new baby clothes that sat in piles on the ground, the girls went back to their cooing over the baby and conversation until Lucas let out a massive laugh and then they all turned around

"Look at this one Peyton" he said lifting up a long sleeve top that said 'Good Looks run in the family'

"It's da truth" Haley said in her best gangster voice "Have you or have you not seen my husband" she said as they all laughed and she got up off the bed "Speaking of Nate I better give me a call" she walked out of the room, up the hallway, out the front door and onto the deck, she dialled and then lifted the phone up to her ear. Nathan answered and mumbled into the receiver

"Were you asleep?" She asked as she leant against the railing with a smile

"Yeah"

"That's not the answer I wanted, I wanted you to say that you couldn't fall asleep without me" she said with a smile

"Babe our kids are crazy, I nearly fell asleep watching cartoons this morning and I had only been watching them for two hours" he said with a chuckle "So do I have a niece or a nephew?"

"You have an Ellie Rebecca Scott"

"So it's a boy then?" he said and she could tell that he was smiling on the other end of the phone

X-x-x-x-x-x

"Hello little girl" Lucas said as he leant over the bassinet and picked the wide eyed baby up, he draped a small blanket over his bare chest and got a bottle of milk "I'm your dad, and I am always going to be there for you I promise you that, and do you know who else you have on your side, you have a crazy big brother and big sister who are going to hopefully not show you how to be naughty and you have your amazing mum who loves you with her whole heart" He continued to feed her as his wife woke up and wrapped her arms and legs around him, resting her head on his bare back.

X-x-x-x-x-x

*Authors Note* This was the second last chapter, hope your looking forward to the next and last chapter, I am looking forward to writing it and getting it out there.


	11. Chapter 11

**Nothings Bigger than love – Chapter eleven **

"MUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUM" Sawyer yelled from the middle of the living room and Peyton ran around the kitchen cleaning up frantically "MUUUUUUUUM" she yelled again as Peyton turned to her

"What's up Sawyer?" she asked as she continued to wipe down the bench

"Where is Daddy?" she asked as she swung her arms backwards and forwards walking into the kitchen

"I told you a minute ago" she said blowing the hair out of her face and leaning against the table "He went to the supermarket, he will be back in a minute" she said before looking around the room "Where is your brother?" she asked noticing the loud boys absence as Sawyer shrugged her shoulders before Peyton let her feet run up the hallway, she checked every room before she slowed down and headed to the bathroom as she could hear singing coming from the bathroom, she walked in and tried to hide her laughter "LEO" was all Sawyer could hear from outside the bathroom. Her mother walked out with her squirming little brother who was covered in talcum powder, his ultra-black hair was now streaked and her mum was not looking happy at all, she stormed up the hallway with Sawyer on her heels.

When they made it to the kitchen Peyton sat a sulking Leo on top of the bench while she turned the taps on in the kitchen sink, she tested the heat of the water before letting it run and stripping off Leo, who actually seemed to be enjoying the whole ordeal "Sawyer baby can you do mum a favour please?" she asked not looking down at the girl

"Yaha mum" she said looking up

"Can you please go to Leo's room and get me some clothes and a nappy for him?" she asked as Sawyer quickly obliged and walked up the hall. "You are so naughty Leo Scott" she said looking at her smiling son before picking him up and putting him in the kitchen sink.

"How bout these mama?" Sawyer said holding them out to her mum

"Perfect darling" she said looking down briefly before putting a jug of the water over the top of little Leo's head.

"Babe I'm home" Lucas said as he walked in the front door, slightly taken back by the scene in front of him

"Please tell me your mum and Andy aren't with you" Peyton said looking at him with despair in her eyes

"What happened here?" he said with a laugh, which he quickly stopped when his wife gave him a look of death

"Your son happened here" and that's all she had to say "He got into the baby powder" she said before indicating that he should come over, he held a towel up and Peyton picked him up and put the boy in his grip as he wrapped the towel around him as Peyton headed up the hallway to get their napping baby daughter. By the time she walked out with the baby girl draped over her arm Leo was back on the ground running around again. "When are they getting here?" she said as Lucas took the baby girl from his arms and lifted her up above his head, Peyton was referring to Andy, Karen and Lily's impending visit, they had called a week ago and told them that they were heading up to visit them and they had news to tell them.

"should be here…" he said looking around as a sound came from the door "right now" Peyton straightened up her skirt and then walked to the door, preparing herself for what was about to happen, she saw them and that was enough to put a smile on her face.

X-x-x-x-x-x

They relocated to the deck with cups of tea to talk and to hear Karen and Andy's big news, the kids ran around in front of them as Karen held Ellie in her arms. "So tell us what the news is then" Peyton said sitting down on the deck chair next to Karen and sweeping her legs underneath herself "Wait are you pregnant?" she said pointing an accusing finger to Karen

"WHAT?" she said with a smile on her face

"Well think about it the last time you sat us down and told us you were getting married, first comes marriage then comes a baby carriage" she joked as Lucas and Andy laughed

"Were not having a baby, but we are moving back to Tree Hill" this news threw them back as much as the news of an impending baby would have "Well say something" Karen said with a laugh

"Are you sure?" Lucas asked it and he wasn't one hundred per cent sure why

"Lily is getting older and she needs stability, she needs friends her own age, she needs this"

"But Tree Hill mum? I thought that you left it behind that that was it"

"Lucas you had the privilege of growing up there, of seeing all that Tree Hill had to offer, its abundant greatness and yes we had bad times but we still had Tree Hill" she sighed as her son looked at her "Luke can you remember when you were leaving Tree Hill for Charleston with Keith?" she asked as he nodded "What did I tell you?"

"There is only one Tree Hill" he said with a smile looking at his mums eyes

"You know what else Lily hasn't had the privilege of knowing Keith and that place Tree Hill, to me that is the essence of Keith Scott" she said it as tears streamed down her face, Lucas got up and hugged her the best he could with the baby in between them.

"I get it mum" he said kissing her cheek and moving back to where he was sitting

"So we are going to drive up tomorrow and we were wondering if you would like to road trip to Tree Hill with us, just for a couple of days maybe? It will be fun, it can be the end of a travelling era, we will take lots of breaks and I promise when you get sick of being stuck in the car with kids we will swap"

"Hey mum" he said interrupting the rambling, she looked at him with her Roe eyes, Lily had the same ones "We would love to come, maybe we can call Haley and ask if we can sleep there for a couple of nights" he said looking to his wife

"I thought that we might not call them, that we might just show up and surprise them" Karen said with a cheeky smile as Lucas nodded

"BRING ON THE ROADTRIP" Andy said enthusiastically as he stood up

X-x-x-x-x-x

"Ellie baby" she said attempting to get the little girls attention so that she could take her arm and put it under the strap of the car seat, she buckled her in and kissed her head passing her a toy and pulling an over exaggerated excited face at the little girl who smiled up at her. Lucas was on the other side buckling in Leo and Sawyer was on the steps of the deck waiting for her parents to come and get the luggage and help her get into the car, her grandparents had just left and she was pretty upset that she couldn't continue hanging out with Lily, because as far as Sawyer was concerned Lily was the bees knees. Both Peyton and Lucas headed from their jeep to where their daughter was standing but before they could get there Peyton's phone rang, she brought it out of her pocket and stopped where she stood "Luke its Haley" she said as he turned to her

"Well answer it then" he said with a laugh as he continued to the steps and Peyton answered the phone

"Hey Foxy" she said sort of nervous, she didn't want to accidently tell Haley that they were heading that way "What's up?"

"Ah nothing really just felt like calling my favourite sister in law and see how she was doing and what she was up to"

"You know just the usual running after kids" she said watching as Lucas folded the pram and lifted up the portable cots and throwing them into the back of the jeep.

"I know the feeling" she said with a laugh

"Hey Hales I'm actually in the middle of something right now is it okay if I call you back later?"

"No Peyton that is fine"

"Thanks, I promise I will make it up to you" she said before hanging up the phone, walking up to her daughter who stood up on the step in her red jeans and singlet with a love heart on it as Lucas put the last bags in the boot of the car, Peyton picked up her handbag and nappy bag before leaning down and picking Sawyer up onto her hip. Sawyer had the unfortunate position of being wedged between two babies car seats in her own booster seat, Karen had offered to take her in their car but they didn't want to impose on them plus they wanted Sawyer to have a nap on the way and that just wasn't going to happen in that car because she would just be too over excited. Peyton put her in the middle of the seats and she soon began colouring in as her parents checked that everything was packed, that the door was locked and then hopped in the car all ready to set off.

"You kids ready for a road trip" Lucas said as he put the key in the ignition and getting not much of a response from the kids in the back, Peyton laughed at her husband as she clicked her seatbelt into the holder.

"YAY" Peyton said with mock enthusiasm just to make him feel a little better, she was excited but tired at this moment, she assumed it would hit her more when they got closer.

X-x-x-x-x-x

"DAAAD" Sawyer complained as he looked in the rear view mirror and her mum turned around, she was looking miserable as the two siblings next to her slept.

"What's wrong baby?" Peyton asked

"It ran out" she said referring to her DVD player that they had set up three hours before hand, Peyton took it off her to check it out and Lucas looked back at her

"You know Sawyer back in my day we didn't have those things we had to make our own fun"

"You know what Sawyer you are going to have to listen to a lot of 'back in my day' stories from your dad" Peyton said with a laugh at her husband and a smile at the little girl in the back of the car.

"Can we play I-Spy please dad?" Sawyer asked with her best convincing tone

"Of course we can beautiful, you start"

"I-Spy with my little eye something beginning with 'O'" the little girl said with so much enthusiasm, it took twenty minutes for Lucas to finally give up and ask the girl what she could see "An Octopus" she said with a smile

"Oy Dorkus you have to say something that you can actually see" he said as he put his indicator on with a massive smile plastered on his face

"Yaha I know, I can see an octopus" she said determined for him to believe her

"Dude we are nowhere near the ocean" he said as Peyton laughed, she loved the relationship that they had and she couldn't wait for her to continue to grow and for their relationship to grow.

"I can totally see an octopus daddy"

"Right this very minute" he said as he saw her nod in the rear vision mirror "Where is it then?"

"Right there" she said pointing to her sisters chest and to the octopus on her sisters onesie as her dad looked outraged and her mum laughed hysterically waking up the baby that they were looking at, her big blue eyes looked at her mum and Peyton leant forward to put a hand on her chubby little legs which kicked when she did so.

X-x-x-x-x-x

"Luke oh my god stop the car" she said looking out the front window to her husband and then back again "You have to stop the car"

"The next schedule stop is like 15 minutes Peyton can you wait to then?" he said referring to the schedule that he and Andy had sat down and mapped out.

"Luke that is where I spread Ellie's ashes" she said leaning forward and putting two hands on the car console. Lucas quickly stopped the car and Peyton practically jumped out, Lucas called his mum and told them that they would meet her at the next stop and then he took all three kids out of the car for a run, he passed Ellie to Peyton who sat on the grass before taking off to chase the other kids around the field.

"Hey Ellie, its Peyton" Peyton said as the little girl responded to her name and looked up at her mum "I haven't come to talk to you in a while and by that I mean at all because I just couldn't but today we were driving and I looked up from my magazine and we just happened to be here and I took it as a sign that I needed to come and talk to you. Wow sitting here now is reminding me of that year when you came into my life and when I had to scatter your ashes, so much has changed since then, you know that boy that I liked, the one that was dating my best friend and saw you buying drugs well I married him and we had a baby practically on the same night, we moved away from Tree Hill and we had two more babies. My first sign that I should come talk to you happened about seven months ago, my second daughter was born and she looked just like you, I was blown away by her beauty and her little attitude and Lucas and I looked at each other and recognised you in her so we named her Ellie. So our first born is named Sawyer…." She said as she looked up into the sky, holding on tightly to the seven month old.

Lucas looked briefly at his wife and smiled knowing full well that she was pouring out her soul to Ellie Harp, he knew how proud Ellie would be of her and he felt this pang in his heart for all of the parents and grandparents in his life were missing out on he was drawn out of his haze by both his kids connecting themselves to his legs, he laughed as he looked down at him.

X-x-x-x-x-x

They had hit Tree Hill about a day after they had left and as they drove into town the car had become silent, mainly because the two youngest kids were fast asleep and at the last stop they had a chance to charge Sawyers DVD player but the reason that Lucas and Peyton were so quite was because they were taking it all in again, Peyton hadn't been back since Sawyer was a baby and Lucas had only been their briefly when Haley desperately needed him. They drove past the high school, the river court, Karen's café, Where Dan Scott Motors used to stand, their old house and the old Keith's body shop, Lucas wondered how his mum was dealing with it all in her car and tried to ignore how he was feeling about it. They drove up Haley and Nathans Street, Lucas knew that Haley was probably wetting herself with excitement at this very moment and he couldn't wait to see the look on his face when they drove up the driveway. As they turned into it Peyton grabbed his hand and he could tell that she was pretty excited as well, he could see Haley standing on the doorstep with a small child, Lily, Karen and Andy. He parked as quick as he could and practically leaped out of the car, walking up and standing in a clear position, watching as Haley came bounding up the driveway towards him.

Peyton turned around in her seat and looked at her kids who all were alert and awake now, Peyton wasn't sure how long they had been awake for but that didn't matter "Welcome to Tree Hill my babies"

The end!

*Authors Note* This was the last ever chapter, this story ends off where Live on Through starts off so if you want to find out what goes on when they return to Tree Hill or how everyone takes the news of Karen, Andy and Lily moving back go and read that one

I'm also thinking of starting another story about them all raising their kids together + I already have one of these kids and the rest of the Tree Hill gangs kids beginning teen hood!

I really loved this story, I loved having my own idea and my own dreams of what was happening with Peyton and Lucas and their little family when they left Tree Hill and I am very incredibly happy with it! I hope you enjoyed it and I hope that you continue to read my stories!

Soon I will be updating my high school reunion story and the teen story as well as the concert story and the Rachel Gatina Story just give me some time and they will all be up!

Thanks ta-ta


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